Editor,
I read the story in Wednesday's Daily Lobo about UNM's high ranking for Hispanic graduate students with great interest. While this is extremely good news, I was surprised that the article took a decidedly pessimistic view of UNM efforts to identify and correct problem areas for Hispanics. The impression that a casual reader might gain from reading this article is that UNM is resting on its laurels and making little effort to serve the specific needs of Hispanic students, or to encourage them to attend graduate school. The article further states that students are concerned that this ranking will make UNM "complacent about improving its services to minorities."
Since the article mentioned none of the many existing and developing programs at UNM geared toward helping minorities and Hispanic students - including programs designed to help prepare and encourage such students to attend UNM and graduate school - I would like to clarify that a large number of programs and services do exist and will identify some of them here.
The article rightly points out that, in proportion to their numbers in the state of New Mexico, Hispanics are underrepresented at UNM. The gap, however, has been steadily closing over the past several years, while the percentage of Hispanic students at UNM has also steadily increased. As a federally designated Hispanic Serving Institution, UNM is acutely aware of its position as a flagship research and teaching university that is fast approaching minority-majority status - that is, its student body will soon be comprised mostly of students who are members of ethnic minorities. Special efforts have been made at UNM for some time to develop new programs and augment existing programs for minorities, while also actively working statewide at the elementary, middle and high school levels to encourage and recruit minority students to seek out postsecondary education, using college prep and bridge programs, parent outreach programs, recruitment efforts, financial aid and scholarships, and advisement and mentoring programs.
For example, UNM's College Enrichment and Outreach Programs and the Hispanic student service organization, El Centro de la Raza, both provide numerous initiatives designed to help Hispanic middle school, high school, undergraduate and graduate students at every stage of their development. Tutoring, mentoring, financial assistance, scholarship opportunities, workshops and seminars, and federal and state research opportunity programs designed to help students prepare for and gain admission to graduate school all exist within UNM.
The new Title V program, which was recently funded by a $2.8 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education, has a specific mission to improve the campus climate for Hispanics, including efforts to connect and engage Hispanic students with their teachers and with potential mentors and advisers who can guide them through their course of studies and career preparation. Title V will also work to coordinate culturally relevant training for teachers and will take a leadership role in efforts to increase the numbers of Hispanic faculty at UNM. Title V is part of a concerted, UNM-wide effort to help improve Hispanic student recruitment, retention and graduation. UNM also recently received an $18.5 million grant from the Robert Wood Foundation to establish a Robert Wood Johnson Center for Health Policy at UNM. The center will be dedicated to training Hispanic, American-Indian and other underrepresented graduate students who are grounded in health policy research and trained to be leaders in national health policy.
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In all, some two dozen permanent programs are in place to help Hispanic and minority students throughout the educational pipeline, including the graduate level and beyond.
These are just a few of the many well-funded programs that exist to help minority students at UNM. UNM continues to explore ways to fund and implement programs that will bring more Hispanic and other minority students into the educational pipeline, and to encourage them to pursue graduate education and high-level careers. Far from discouraging our efforts to develop more and better services for our minority students, UNM's high ranking in Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education will strengthen and provide further impetus to our efforts.
Students who want more information about some of the many programs available to them can call the College Enrichment and Outreach Program at 277-3096; El Centro de la Raza at 277-5020; African-American Student Services at 277-5645; American-Indian Student Services at 277-6343; and the Title V program at 277-7763.
Eliseo "Cheo" Torres
Vice president
for student affairs
