Mike Muñoz holds the lofty title of superintendent-president of Long Beach City College. But he still sees himself in many of his students who have endured difficult lives to pursue higher education.
Muñoz, who grew up in Whittier and Anaheim, became homeless at age 17 and moved 10 times in five years in search of a place to live. He sometimes went without food or electricity, struggling to make ends meet with low-paying jobs. He became a single father at age 20. Later, he came out as gay and distanced himself from his father.
Her experiences overcoming obstacles to college success have fueled her deep passion for breaking down those barriers.
“I see it as my superpower,” he said of his struggles. “It allows me to be radically empathetic and radically compassionate toward people who have had these experiences. “It really cements me in my leadership.”
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Muñoz, 47, is recognized nationally for improving academic outcomes at Long Beach, one of the state's largest community colleges. Two-thirds of its 34,800 students are low-income; Latinos represent 53%, followed by whites at 14%, black students at 13%, Asian and Filipino students at 11%, and multiethnic students at 8%.
Progress among Black and Latino students is particularly striking, with enrollment and persistence rates increasing, meaning more students continued their studies after entering rather than dropping out. The number of Black students seeking a certificate or degree for the first time increased 30% in 2022-23 over the previous year. Persistence rates increased 12%. The percentage of Black students who completed their program or transferred to a four-year institution remains low (10%), but that is up from 6% in 2017.
For Latinos, enrollment increased 21%, persistence rates 5.8% and program completion rates 27% in 2022-23 compared to the previous year, according to university data.
Muñoz has aggressively addressed barriers to achievement since joining Long Beach in 2018, first as vice president of student services and then as superintendent-president in 2021. Before that, he spent 13 years at Rio Hondo College and Santa Ana College in counseling, equity and student success.
Muñoz knows firsthand that students need support to succeed. He and his team have provided more on-campus jobs using unspent federal work-study grants; free after-school care for children of student parents; a food pantry, academic resources, a new success center for Black students, and tailored supports for men of color, who are at higher risk of dropping out.
Long Beach was one of the first California universities to offer its parking structure as a safe space for students living in their vehicles, as Muñoz did in previous years. He was an early advocate for eliminating placement tests for entry into transfer-level math and English courses, saying they were biased against underserved students; Completion rates of those English courses by Black students have skyrocketed from 9% in 2018 to 25% this year, while rates for Latinos grew from 12% to 35%.
His relentless drive for change has sometimes drawn criticism. But Muñoz says he sees his reputation for upending the status quo as a “badge of honor.”
