This paper examines the conditions of three public postsecondary institutions that support the persistence and development of Chicano students around San Diego (California): a community college campus, a state university campus, and a University of California campus. A 99-item, mailed questionnaire was completed by students who self-identified as Chicano. Characteristics of Chicano students result from both the sociopolitical and cultural status of their community and must be examined through their historical experiences as a subordinate group that experienced military conquest and subjugation, administration of the community by non-Chicanos, cultural imperialism, and racism. Chicano students are likely to feature a historically subordinate sociopolitical status and strong elements of resistance with a complex process of mixed cultural development. Constructing enabling conditions for Chicanos in institutions of higher learning involves a restructuring of values, policies, and practices that are embedded in the culture of each institution; because of this, most institutions place Chicanos at a low priority. Findings in this exploratory study indicated that students held a strong bicultural, Mexican-American profile of themselves and that their overall perceptions of their campus' institutional conditions were not equally conducive to students' positive experiences. (Contains 39 references.) (NAV)