Latino Educators, Students Demand Greater UC Representation

The University of California faces a crisis situation because of the low number of Latino students and faculty in the nine-campus system, according those who attended a two-day gathering that concluded Thursday at the Irvine Hilton.

The gathering of about 300 Latino professors, administrators and students from the UC system ended with militant warnings.

“Something must be done (to get better Latino representation),” said Roberto P. Haro, assistant vice chancellor for undergraduate affairs at UC Berkeley. “It’s a question of where the priorities are. We are demanding that the university reconsider its priorities. We are not asking politely.”

Eugene Cota-Robles, acting assistant vice president for academic affairs of the UC system, said: “I think it is a crisis situation. We are thinking of the year 2000, when about 30% of the population of this state will be Hispanic. Right now the state has about 20% Hispanic population, and the university is badly under-represented.”

By contrast, only about 5% of the undergraduates and 2% of the graduate students and faculty in the UC system are Latino, he said.

A report from the gathering, which called itself “the First Annual Convocation of the UC Chicano/Latino Consortium,” will be issued in the next two weeks and will go to UC president David Gardner, the UC Board of Regents and the state Legislature.

The group used the term Chicano/Latino to separate Mexican-Americans (Chicanos) from other Latinos. Officials at the convocation said the most severe under-representation problems in the UC system are among Mexican-Americans.

Haro said political action may be needed by California’s large Mexican-American population to sensitize the university to the state’s demographics. “We may have to do as they did in Texas. In Texas, there are 40 Hispanic legislators who are making sure that proper priority is paid to the problem at the University of Texas.”

Studies Criticized

Previous academic studies, including one by the California Postsecondary Education Commission, have largely blamed a low high school graduation rate for the low percentages of Latinos, including Mexican-Americans, in the UC and California State University systems.

But officials at the convocation charged that the UC system is not doing as much as it can with Latino high school graduates.

Cota-Robles said many Latinos in high school are eligible for UC “but are not admissible because they failed to take the proper tests.” He said the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test, which helps students prepare for the crucial SAT, is not pushed as strongly in minority high schools.

Cota-Robles and Haro said paying the costs of PSAT exams in poorer high schools could be one way of helping more Latinos gain admission to the UC system. They also called for more outreach programs by the nine UC campuses into minority high schools in their areas. Also helpful, they said, would be a systemwide method of assigning a faculty mentor to Latino students at all UC campuses.

Convocation officials charged that UC is not doing enough to hire and promote Latino faculty. Haro acknowledged that a relatively low number of Latino professors are available. “But even within that existing applicant pool, there is a disproportionately low number of hires” by the UC system, Haro said.

Haro and Cota-Robles also charged that the UC system is not putting enough Latinos into management positions.