Hurdle pops up to it being ‘Hispanic-serving’

Lisa Peregrina ignored labels such as “goody-goody” and “teacher’s pet” – common titles for kids in her south-central neighborhood who wanted to go to college.

She was too busy getting an education and seeking out scholarships.

“I was so focused – it shocks me. A lot of it had to do with my parents and the influence in the home,” said Peregrina, 25, whose decision to attend the University of Arizona partly inspired her mom to start attending, too. They graduated in 2003.

Peregrina knew UA had said it wanted to enroll more Hispanics, but she never encountered a recruiter at her high school campus. She found UA anyway, less than three miles north of Las Vistas, her modest neighborhood.

Four years later, she graduated with a degree funded entirely by grants and scholarships.

Peregrina, now a banker with a nationwide corporation, mentors young people, hoping they, too, find success.

With the population of Hispanic teens exploding and Arizona in danger of having an undereducated work force, the demographic gap could hurt the state economically.

UA has been talking about increasing Latino enrollment since Lisa was in diapers. In 1983, then-President Henry Koffler said he wanted to boost enrollment to 18 percent from about 6 percent.

In 2003, Hispanic enrollment was about 14 percent. That year, President Peter Likins reaffirmed that UA was committed to Hispanics.

Now, because of a 2003 Supreme Court ruling, Likins says UA can no longer legally promise to reach the federal definition of Hispanic-serving: 25 percent Hispanic, half being low income.

“This is going to happen naturally. If I call it a commitment, I could be accused of having a quota and could be in a lot of trouble legally,” Likins said in an interview with the Tucson Citizen last month.

“It seems natural to assume that in time, and maybe not a great deal of time, the university should qualify as a Hispanic-serving institution,” Likins said.

With proposed immigration reform mobilizing thousands of Latino teenagers here, Likins may be right.

Some community members say UA hasn’t done enough. They want a clearer commitment and say an educational divide could hurt the state economically as it tries to lure corporations and industry.

As administrators try to better serve the population, those like Peregrina say policy changes don’t always dictate success.

“I wasn’t the best,” she said, “but I treated college like it was supposed to happen.”

Reaching for the degree
Rebeca Arias, who was recently accepted into UA’s College of Medicine, said education has always been at the front of her mind, thanks to her parents.

“It’s just something that’s grown in me,” said Arias, 24, a California native whose parents and two sisters have university degrees.

“It may have been a bit easier because both my parents were educated and pushed us,” she said.

UA is nearing its physical capacity of 40,000 students and is changing its admissions standards, giving assured admission to only the top 25 percent of the state’s high school graduates. Until this year, Arizona students in the top 50 percent were automatically eligible. The state’s other two public universities still assure admission to the top 50 percent.

Administrators say the policy won’t hurt minorities because talent, personality and service are also considered, but Ernest Calderón isn’t convinced.

“We are headed toward having Northern Arizona and Arizona State universities as being the providers of higher education for the masses,” said Calderón, an Arizona Board of Regents member who received his law degree from UA.

Calderón does not oppose NAU’s and ASU’s growth, but worries UA will “only provide education to the elite.”

Arias does not blame UA, saying families are also responsible.

“You can’t teach the parents everything, and you can’t teach the institution everything,” she said. “If the child doesn’t want to learn, nothing is going to happen.”

Peregrina, who advocates personal responsibility, has seen the results of bad decisions.

Three of her neighborhood friends made it to UA. Others are in dead-in jobs, a few have joined gangs, and a couple have been killed.

“We could have been on the same path. They just made different decisions,” she said.

But UA “could do more” to reach out to youths, she said.

Tucson High Magnet junior Suzette Castro feels the same.

One recent Friday afternoon, Castro and a friend were waiting across from the school for their ride. Castro was wearing a University of Texas sweater but said she prefers UA, even though she doesn’t get the sense that UA wants her.

“The majority of us want to go there, and it’s our first choice, but we don’t see them at our schools,” said Castro, 16.

If she attended UA and graduated, Castro said, she would feel indebted to the university.

“I would come back and recruit students myself,” she said. “A lot of Hispanics are dropping out, but they would look up to me more because I was raised here.”

‘We can do it’
You don’t need a bachelor’s degree to be a success, and getting one is no guarantee. It is the necessary springboard for a broad range of careers. To be a doctor, lawyer, architect or public school teacher, you need one.

A four-year degree also opens the way to graduate school and other opportunities for better jobs.

That’s why it is so important that UA enroll and graduate minorities, said Tomás León, president and CEO of the Tucson Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

UA’s 5,100 undergraduate Hispanics make up about 14 percent compared to 6 percent in 1983.

But while UA has made gains, changing demographics are widening the gap.

Arizona is 28 percent Hispanic, and Tucson is at 38 percent.

Tucson’s Hispanic population jumped nearly 90 percent in the 1990s, and nearly 40 percent of all students in kindergarten through high school are Hispanic.

“I know what the challenges and barriers are. I’ve experienced them,” León said. “Our local Hispanic leaders are fed up with what’s happening, and we want to see action.”

Charles Tatum, dean of UA’s College of Humanities, has been urging UA to become Hispanic-serving for years.

“Given our demographics and the huge growth, the institution should be committed,” said Tatum, whose college has introduced new scholarships and programs in recent years to aid Hispanics.

Positive change
Others on campus are trying to increase the support of Hispanics.

UA is home to the Arizona Hispanic Center of Excellence, the Hispanic Women and Cancer Project and more than half a dozen degree programs dedicated to Mexican and Latin American studies.

The Chicano/Hispano Student Affairs center sponsors student clubs and fraternities, tutoring workshops, leadership seminars and events like last month’s yoga and relaxation class for those feeling the pressure of midterms and the approaching finals week.

Also, UA has increased its Hispanic population by more than 180 percent since 1983.

UA has the highest percentage of Hispanic students of the state’s three public universities. NAU’s population is about 12 percent; ASU’s is just over 10 percent.

Yet, the portion of Hispanic students at UA has remained between about 12 percent and 15 percent in the last decade, a sobering fact for Tatum.

Tatum spent two years completing a 160-page report on the issue and is positive UA can reach a 25 percent Hispanic student population.

To get there, UA must create more partnerships and increase funding to its Chicano/Hispano Student Affairs, among other things, he said.

Administrators often blame the K-12 system, a dearth of qualified applicants and low state funding, but these are not adequate excuses, Tatum said.

“Yeah, we’re poor and inadequately funded, but through reallocation of funding and prioritizing, we can do it,” he said.

Tatum said the problem is not UA’s alone. Arizona is struggling to provide equal opportunity in education to all students. In recent years it has been sued and been under federal court order to reach fairer formulas for building new schools and for educating children who are not native English speakers.

“The state needs to deal with its education issues holistically, from kindergarten through the university,” Tatum said.

E. Marty Cortez , a Pima Community College board member, agreed on the funding issue, but said UA must also market to Hispanics.

“You may have a powerful product, but if you don’t get the information out in a way that people understand it and form some belief system, it becomes a distant thing,” she said.

PCC, which has a different mission than UA, has a Hispanic student population of about 30 percent.

“We’re not saying that they’re doing it wrong,” Cortez said, “but maybe there is a better way to do it.”

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Related story

UA’s Hispanics goal may be out of reach

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Latinos at UA

14%

in Tucson

39%

in Tucson under 15

47%

———

Hispanics in higher education

● In 1980, 16 percent of Hispanics between the ages of 18 and 24 were enrolled at a college or university. Now, 22 percent are enrolled.

● In 1985, 27 percent of Hispanic high school graduates between the ages of 18 and 24 enrolled in college, compared to 36 percent in 2000.

● In 2000, Hispanic students made up 10 percent of the total enrollment at colleges and universities, compared to 4 percent in 1980.

Source: National Center for Education Statistics, March 2006

———

UA’s Hispanic students*
Number of Percentage of

Hispanic student

Year /students /population

1995 4,342 12.5

1996 4,258 12.7

1997 4,381 12.9

1998 4,424 12.9

1999 4,415 12.7

2000 4,481 12.9

2001 4,668 13.1

2002 4,855 13.2

2003 4,950 13.4

2004 5,024 13.6

2005 5,101 13.8

*The self-reported data exclude international students.

Source: UA Office of Enrollment Research

Tucson’s Hispanics
Number of Percentage of

Year Hispanics population

2000 173,868 35.7

2004 191,490 38.7

Arizona’s Hispanics
Number of Percentage of

Year Hispanics population

2000 1,295,617 5.3

2004 1,584,217 28.1

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

———

A timeline
Two decades of Hispanic issues:

1982The UA Hispanic Alumni Association is founded; Henry Koffler becomes UA’s president.

1983Koffler charges the university with increasing the Hispanic student population to 18 percent.

1989The Tucson Hispanic Chamber of Commerce created.

1990-2000: Hispanic population in Tucson jumps 88 percent.

1991UA’s Chicano/Hispano Student Affairs is created.

1992Pima Community College’s Hispanic student enrollment reaches 25 percent.

1994Arizona Board of Regents approves a minority student retention and graduation plan, setting a goal of reducing graduation disparities over the next 10 years.

1995UA South in Sierra Vista becomes UA’s first and only branch campus.

1999UA’s Arizona Hispanic Center of Excellence is created with federal funding.

2002University of Arizona South in Sierra Vista becomes federally recognized as Hispanic-serving.

2003UA President Peter Likins says the university is dedicated to becoming a Hispanic-serving institution; UA Economics building renamed for Mexican-American labor rights activist Cesar Chavez; UA receives a federal Initiative to Improve Latino Access and Academic Success grant for $471,242. It has funded summer academies for high school students and other programs.

2003U.S. Supreme Court rules in University of Michigan case that race can be considered in college admissions, but cannot be the main reason a student is admitted.

2004UA’s Media, Democracy & Policy Initiative created to address issues concerning the media, society and political views of Hispanics.

2006UA will begin using more-selective admissions standards during the fall semester. Sources: Charles Tatum, UA College of Humanities dean; Arizona Board of Regents; Tucson Citizen reporting

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