Assistant Professor Elengold publishes two reports on Latino College Completion
Researchers at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Assistant Professor of Law, Kate Sablosky Elengold, and Managing Director of UNC Center for Community Capital ,Jess Dorrance, teamed up with UnidosUS to explore whether and how the debt-driven higher education system makes it difficult for students to finish a college program or degree. Assistant Professor Elengold directs the Consumer Financial Transactions Clinic and is a faculty fellow at the UNC Center for Community Capital. Her teaching and research interests include consumer credit and debt, civil rights, property, and professional responsibility. Elengold’s scholarship bridges consumer and civil rights doctrines, with a specific focus on student debt. Their two reports can be found hyperlinked below along with a brief description.
Debt, Doubt, and Dreams: Understanding the Latino College Completion Gap analyzes 1,500 surveys of individuals who started, but did not complete, a college program. With 35 percent identifying as Latino, the data speaks directly to the barriers facing all students seeking higher education and identifies barriers that disproportionately burden Latinos. Specifically, the research asks a critical question: How do attitudes about debt affect postsecondary completion for Latino students?
Dreams Interrupted: A mixed-method research project exploring Latino College Completion is the second report arising out of a generous grant from Lumina Foundation to study the relationship between debt, achievement, and equity in higher education, with a specific focus on Latino students.
Professor Kate Sablosky Elengold, director of the law school’s Consumer Financial Transaction Clinic, is the research project’s principal investigator.