Council seeks to spur Hispanic enrollment

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

The Hispanic population is the largest minority population in the United States, but Hispanic students enrolled at the University has been stagnant over the past few years. Provost Richard Lariviere has created a council to find out why.

Hispanics are set to make up 30 percent of the United States’ population by 2050, according to the latest census data, but Hispanic enrollment has barely climbed above 3 percent at the University.

Lariviere has invited 24 members of Kansas’ Latino community to be a part of the Latino Vision Council. Four of the members are KU students or alumni.

Lariviere said members of the council represented both wealthy and poor segments of the population across Kansas. The council has a wide age range and is made up of college students and state, public and religious officials from the Latino community.

Lariviere said low enrollment was a common problem for all minority groups, not just for Hispanics. He said it was important to focus on the local Hispanic population because of how quickly it has grown.

Galo Salcedo, Guayaquil, Ecuador, 2007 graduate, said his parents always encouraged him to pursue a college education. Salcedo said many students put emphasis on paying the bills and not education.

“It all depends on your background,” Salcedo said. “But it’s going to help you get further in life to invest time now in an education. It will pay off.”

Leo Casados, Jr., academic adviser at Butler County Community College in El Dorado and council member, said the council wanted to also train additional faculty and staff to support the increase of Spanish-speaking students. He said a successful integration of more Latino and Hispanic students would require the involvement of campus organizations and sororities and fraternities.

Cruz Jasso, associate principal of Emporia High School and council member, said many Latino students had difficulty overcoming immediate pressures from peers and their families and ended up dropping out or falling behind.

Casados said like many minority students, Latinos often didn’t have family role models who had attended college.

— — Edited by Lauren Keith

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