Making admissions a bilingual process

Bienvenidos a Penn.

Or at least that's the message the University hopes to convey with a new initiative to produce admissions materials in Spanish.

The materials will be intended for Penn parents who speak little or no English.

The Latino Coalition, Undergraduate Assembly, International Student Council and Office of Undergraduate Admissions are working together on the initiative.

Although the effort is still in the planning stages, Latino Coalition vice chairwoman, DP staff member and College junior Mayra Garza said Admissions Dean Eric Furda has committed to working with students to accomplish the goal.

Students from the Latino Coalition will meet with the dean today to discuss the initiative, Furda's assistant Angela Sweeney wrote in an e-mail.

Garza said that when she spoke with Furda after the last University Council meeting, which was held on Oct. 22, he suggested hiring Spanish-speaking work-study students to translate the materials.

But ISC admissions committee chairwoman and College freshman Angela Poe said she doesn't expect the translations to be finished until the spring.

The UA and ISC are focused on translating financial-aid information first, followed by admissions materials, College sophomore and chairman of the UA Civics and Community Engagement committee Mark Pan said. He added that these materials should eventually be translated into more languages.

Next, he would like to see other offices on campus translate their publications, including the Division of Public Safety and College Houses and Academic Services.

Although they have "non-monetary support" from many divisions on campus, convincing them to fund a translator has been difficult, Pan said.

But "if you start sending out materials in other languages," said Poe, "questions will start coming in in other languages."

For this reason, Pan and Poe have looked into listing Spanish-speaking office hours - when a Spanish-speaking financial-services officer would be available to answer questions - on the Student Financial Services Web site.

SFS did not return requests for comment.

The initiative gained momentum after students involved in the effort received the results of a survey administered last spring. The survey asked if Penn should print brochures and other materials in languages other than English and, if so, which languages.

Only 233 people were surveyed, including 224 undergraduates and six graduate students.

Of the 95 people who responded to the question, only 12.6 percent said that it was "absolutely essential" to create Penn brochures in a language other than English. About 65 percent answered with a definitive "no."

Financial-aid materials are the most important to translate for 83.5 percent of respondents, and 63.9 percent said admissions-related materials.

Pan added that because the survey didn't get many responses, the responses weren't representative of the campus.

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