New initiative aims to support Latino students

Portland State President Wim Wiewel on Monday anounced a new program, known as Éxito, to recruit, support and graduate Latino students, who currently make up 5 percent of the student body at PSU.

In 2009, Wiewel assembled a task force in order to increase the number of Latino students in higher education. Last June, it released a report outlining key recommendations to achieve this goal, including creating a Latina/o Alumni Association and holding college information sessions for Latino youth and their families.

As of now, four of the 10 recommendations have been prioritized. Those recommendations are: increasing funding for Latino students, increasing the number of Latino faculty and staff, creating a Latino cultural center on campus and recruiting Latino students to Oregon’s colleges and universities.

“When I came to Portland two years ago…it really struck me how few Latino/Latina students Portland State had compared to the proportion of the population in the greater Portland area,” Wiewel said.

Currently, about 10 percent of the Portland population is Latino. However, in the region’s elementary schools, Latino students make up 30 percent of the population. Wiewel pointed out that, as these students in the younger grades enter high school and graduate, they will need to be informed about higher education. Therefore, he believes it is important to implement a program that will recruit and graduate more Latino students from higher education.

Éxito—which translates to “success” in Spanish—aims to eliminate the cultural barriers Latinos face so that they can enroll in college and obtain a degree. In addition, the program will support students post-graduation, whether that means helping them to enter the job market or to enroll in a graduate program.

According to Wiewel, the university is committing $350,000 to the initiative, $250,000 of which will come from the university’s funds. The other $100,000 will come from the PSU Foundation.

“Some people will ask how can you do this in a time of constrained resources,” he said. “One, it is our job…it has always been Portland State’s job to serve the community, and [Latinos] are a very important part of the population of our community that we have not been paying attention to.”

In addition, Wiewel said that the implementation of the program is in the university’s interest. As the Latino population is one of the fastest-growing populations in Oregon, it is key that a majority of them obtain college degrees. Otherwise, Wiewel said, they will not get well-paying jobs, nor attract businesses that will “make Portland successful economically.”

“[Éxito] is absolutely necessary,” said Mayor Sam Adams. “The success of Portland and Oregon’s Latino/Hispanic community is directly related to the success of the entire city and the entire state, regardless of your race or ethnicity.”

Dr. Perla Rodriguez, the principal of Cornelius Elementary School in Forest Grove, said that over 80 percent of the school’s student body is Hispanic. Though Rodriguez was born in Oregon, her family moved to the U.S. from Mexico.

According to Rodriguez, ethnic students must learn to navigate two cultures at an early age, especially if they wish to succeed academically. However, this often causes conflict, especially when values clash.

“It’s not just about getting students accepted [into college], but about building in these systemic safety nets that are going to help when negotiating cultures doesn’t come easily,” she said.

Leti Ayala, a senior at PSU and a member of Wiewel’s task force, is a first-generation student from a Hispanic family. While in high school, she said she was uninformed of college options and costs.

“My counselor never came to me and helped me fill out a college application, or told me about the fees that go along with college applications,” she said. “They told me everyone can go to college, but not everyone can pay for college.”

According to Wiewel, though the university hasn’t designated specific performance goals for Éxito, he hopes to double the Latino population at PSU over a six-year period.

“It’s not just up to us, it’s the work of the whole K–12 system to ensure that students are in fact college-ready,” he said. “Then we make the doors as open as possible.”

The new chief diversity officer, Jilma Meneses, will continue to work with an advisory committee to monitor the program.