5 Drawing from a larger study on Asian Americans and Latino/as at HBCUs, this chapter focuses exclusively on the Latino/a students, sheds light on factors that motivated Latino/a students to attend a historically Black university, and discusses the on-campus experiences of these students. The chapter provides insight into what HBCUs might do to help increase a sense of belonging among Latino/a students. From Matriculation to Engagement on Campus: Delineating the Experiences of Latino/a Students at a Public Historically Black University Robert T. Palmer, Dina C. Maramba, Taryn Ozuna Allen, Ramon B. Goings Historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) emerged during a period when predominantly White institutions (PWIs), primarily in the Southern states, excluded Blacks from participating in postsecondary ed- ucation (Gasman, Lundy-Wagner, Ransom, & Bowman, 2010). Although HBCUs were created to provide an educational opportunity for Blacks, these institutions have never prohibited students, faculty, and staff from other racial and ethnic backgrounds from matriculating into and working there. As Marybeth Gasman and Thai-Huy Nguyen explained in Chapter 1, HBCUs have always been welcoming to diverse populations. However, since their founding, HBCUs have enrolled a predominantly Black student pop- ulation. For example, in The Changing Face of Historically Black Colleges and Universities, a report that Gasman (2013) wrote for the Center for Minority Serving Institutions at the University of Pennsylvania, she noted that in 1950 Black students made up almost 100% of the student enrollment of HBCUs. By 1980, however, Black students represented 80% of the HBCU student enrollment. Today, Black students constitute 76% of students attending HBCUs while students from other racial and ethnic groups make up the remain- ing 24%. Within that 24% of non-Black students, 13% are White, 5% are students whose race or ethnicity is unknown, 3% are Latino/a, 1% NEW DIRECTIONS FOR HIGHER EDUCATION, no. 170, Summer 2015  2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) • DOI: 10.1002/he.20132 67