Nicolas Rodriquez: Improving minority student life on campus

Penn is at a crossroads for a school that over the past two decades has improved by leaps and bounds in the court of public opinion. However, Penn is struggling to pace its peers in the upper echelon of school rankings.

Accomplishments include bringing in stronger faculty and students and improving facilities. However, at this time, a crisis is looming, as the question of diversity -- lying in the background for the past few years -- has become a contentious issue once again. At the same time, a crunch for facility space, as well as the development of academic programs and cultural resource centers, has begun to take its toll.

Penn is making an effort to make sure that its students enjoy a fulfilling tenure at the University. But what makes for a fulfilling academic career? Is it spending a great deal of time in the classroom and in the library? Is it spending time completing research or being active in campus politics?

Perhaps where Penn's progress originated is not just from the administration's strategic plans for academic development, but specifically from student agitation. In my time working on campus with many other students, I have noticed that these pedagogical issues are key to Penn's development.

Many people have questioned me because I made a point in an earlier column when referring to the segregation of Philadelphia. I specifically used the term "anglo," instead of the term "white." I did this intentionally, to elicit a response because while we often use the term "white," there is a certain complexity to the concept that is often ignored, much in the same way people ignore the complexity of "minority," or even "Latino." Surprisingly, many people were angered by my choice, but only because they did not understand the point I was trying to make.

This is the obstacle we face today in analyzing where we are, as a community and as a university. We see the accolades that venerate our institution, yet we don't fully grasp some of the complex issues that have affected our university for over a century. This is the university not only of Benjamin Franklin, but also of W.E.B. DuBois.

Penn is a self-described trendsetter in the race to address race, but the institutional memory that many acknowledge as finite is never addressed. For example, a great problem that existed even before I came to Penn was the retention of Latino students. Retention rates for Latinos have been among the worst of any group on campus and were among the worst in our sister institutions.

For several years, Latino students organized because they felt that as a whole, their concerns about recruitment and retention -- as well as student resources -- were not being addressed on campus. The purpose of having centers such as La Casa Latina was to facilitate cultural exploration and to help support students by connecting them "to resources and services that foster the integration of their academic social, cultural and community service activities." Because of this, their experience at Penn could be enriched.

However, Penn administrations dating back to the 1970s have not always been receptive to student concerns. Past efforts by groups like the Black Student League, MEChA and the United Minorities Council to create the Greenfield Intercultural Center and ethnic studies programs have been met with resistance.

These ideas have not been born out of thin air by students. These are age-old issues here at Penn -- and in America. These are personal narratives that seem to be in the collective consciousness of not only a community of students of color, but also in religious and sexual minorities and low-income students.

The point is that while we as students acknowledge the efforts of Penn to address these complex issues, I do not believe that the administration would be paying as much attention were it not for a long-term effort on the part of students to bring these concerns to the forefront of campus consciousness. Institutional memory does exist in the student community, a history passed down through years of struggle for improvement by peers and alumni. Students recognize that the trajectory of our efforts and the efforts of the administration have not aligned. However, we can't mince words in our efforts to bring solutions to the complex issues facing our campus.

The progress we will find at Penn will come from understanding not only of how far we have come, but how far we still need to go in addressing the demands of this evolving campus community. The ball is in Penn's court, and where we are 10 years from now will be determined by how we address the demands of an evolving community.Nicolas Rodriquez is a senior Political Science major from Sanger, Calif. and spokesman for the Latino Coalition.

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