Colleges Reach Out to Hispanics as Enrollment Sags

MARYVILLE, TENN. — Driving along US-411N, flanked by rolling green hills and slow-moving cows, it seems surprising to hear a DJ on the FM dial breathlessly announcing a merengue show in nearby Knoxville _ in Spanish.

In fact, Tennessee, like fellow Appalachian states Kentucky, North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia, is home to one of the fastest-growing Hispanic populations in the country, much younger on average than the region’s non-Hispanic white and black populations, and with larger families.