Oregonian: Portland State University launches initiative to recruit and retain more Latino students

Frederick D. Joe/The Oregonian
Portland State University President Wim Wiewel: "It really shocked me how few Latino students we had."

Latino students seeking college degrees often face isolation on campus, the demands of a full-time job and no financial support from home, says Letisia Ayala, a Mexican American senior at Portland State University.

Those are some of the reasons why President Wim Wiewel announced today that Portland State will launch a $350,000 initiative to recruit and support Latino students.

The initiative -- called Exito!, which is Spanish for success -- is based on recommendations from a task force that included Ayala, the daughter of immigrants and on track to be first in her family to earn a college degree. The university's foundation will raise $100,000 for the project; the rest will come from the school's general fund.

The university this year will provide Latino students financial aid, more internships, a new La Casa Latina cultural center, mentors and graduate and post-graduation support.

"When I came to Portland two years ago, it really shocked me how few Latino and Latina students we had in the population," Wiewel said. "There were really no special programs."

While Portland State has 1,236 Latino students, more than any of the other six public Oregon campuses, they account for only 5 percent of the student body. Latinos, the state's fastest growing population, make up 20 percent of public school students.

Portland State has not set specific student goals with its initiative, but Wiewel said it would be reasonable to expect the university to double its Latino faculty and students within six years.

The La Casa Latina cultural center will give Latino students a place to gather in the Smith Memorial Student Union so they don't feel so isolated.

The university also will provide full tuition support to 100 undergraduate and 25 graduate students, double the Latino faculty from about 20 professors to 40 over five years, and hire a bilingual admissions counselor and a bilingual adviser to recruit students, starting in middle school.

"This program is cutting edge," said Portland Mayor Sam Adams, at a news conference at the university this morning. "It is exactly what we need right now."

Latino students drop out of Oregon schools at 2.5 times the rate of their non-Latino white peers, and they are more likely to be tracked into low-level courses and counseled against college, says a report by the task force that advised Wiewel.

Because they hit more obstacles in schools, Latino students need more support, said Perla Rodriguez, principal of Forest Grove's Cornelius Elementary, which is 80 percent Latino.

"Equality doesn't mean everything's equal," she said. "We have to realize we have underrepresented groups that might need something extra."

Wiewel said he'd like to see Congress pass the Dream Act, which would establish temporary residency to undocumented college students, now charged expensive out-of-state tuition and barred from federal loans.

Portland State has a responsibility to better serve Oregon's Latino population, he said. "This is an important part of the community that we have not been paying enough attention to."

– Bill Graves