GUEST COLUMN: La Casa Latina: Meeting Latino students' needs

I find this explanation difficult to believe since I was part of the group of 14 Latino student leaders that walked to her office on April 21, 1998, accompanied by reporters from two television stations and five local newspapers, to deliver the complaint. The following day the DP reported that spokespeople from the president's and Interim Provost Michael Wachter's offices acknowledged that the report had been received. Were these spokespeople telling the truth when they admitted to having received the complaint, or was Rodin misquoted when she said that she did not receive it? Regardless, after six months, neither the president nor the interim provost has responded to a document researched and written by a group of 14 Latino graduate and undergraduate organizations. Is the educated and civil approach that we took toward solving a problem dealing with race inequities on this campus effective? I would still like to believe that it is; however, I am starting to lose ground with those who have been waiting patiently with me. According to the University of Pennsylvania's Affirmative Action Policy Statement: "Men and women of different races, religions, nationalities and backgrounds are necessary to achieve the University's ultimate purpose: the improvement of the human condition through the pursuit of learning. Diversity is prized at Penn because it helps to create the educational environment that best prepares students to contribute to an increasingly diverse and rapidly shrinking world. We have a clear commitment to affirmative action. We must continue, therefore, to seek talented faculty, students and staff who will help constitute a community at Penn that is diverse in race, ethnicity, interests and perspectives." And in 1996, Rodin was quoted in Almanac as having said that, "If Penn intends to educate leaders, as we frequently proclaim, then we must recognize and accommodate the diversity of the society we expect our graduates to lead." Latinos are one of the fastest growing minority groups in the United States. In 1996, the U.S. Census Bureau reported that Latinos make up 10 percent of the U.S. population, and it projected that by the year 2000 we will make up 12 percent. By 2010 we will be the largest minority group. Our population is currently undereducated and underserved. It is imperative that world-class institutions such as Penn take the lead in providing our community with a new generation of leaders. This "clear commitment" to affirmative action has resulted in only token Latino access to the University at all levels. In the same Almanac article on minority recruitment and retention, Rodin admitted that the numbers of Latino students and faculty at the University "are still not what they should be." Out of the 1,800 standing faculty, we have counted only 35 Latinos, or 1.94 percent. More dramatically, at present there are only three tenured Latino faculty members. As for the number of students, we have managed to count a total of 323 Latino undergraduates who make up 3.23 percent. Finally, out of the 53 members on the Board of Trustees, there is only one Latino. In the same article, Rodin also stated, "If Penn's mission is genuinely tripartite, teaching, research and service, then our service to a tremendously complex and ever-changing society demands that we educate future leaders who come from and participate in that complexity and change." Unfortunately, only a tiny fraction of those future leaders that Penn educates are Latinos. What will happen if the University continues to serve our "tremendously complex and ever-changing society" without educating a fair and proportionate number of Latino leaders? Despite all of the messages from the president admitting that there is a problem, since at least September 1996, the percentage of Latinos at this University has remained essentially unchanged. In fact, it has gone down. The Latino Alumni Society, the Latino Faculty and Staff Association and the Latino Coalition have decided to work together to address the complaints that we submitted last April and come up with solutions. These solutions were transformed into a proposal that was delivered to the president's and interim provost's offices on October 30 of this year. This time we called the secretaries who received the complaints to ensure that they were actually delivered to the president and to the interim provost. It is our hope that Rodin and Wachter will read the proposal and meet with our respective organizations to finally make the president's inspiring words a reality.