The Chronicle

Issue date: 4/13/07 Section: News
Last update: 4/13/07 at 6:23 AM EST

Media Credit: SARA GUERRERO Students speak in Richard White Lecture Hall at the second annual State of Latinos meeting Wednesday.

Approximately 40 students, administrators and faculty met Wednesday night at the second annual State of Latinos meeting in the Richard White Lecture Hall to discuss what junior Brian Ovalle called the "changing face of the Latino community" on campus.

"If we don't feel like we're engaging the student body in Latino issues, they're not going to understand the cultural differences that exist outside the University," Ovalle said. "It's important to us to make changes toward bringing about this more diverse student body."

Coordinators Ovalle and Brian Flores, Trinity '06, said Duke's Latino culture suffers from near invisibility and does not reflect the growing influence of Latinos nationwide due to limited on-campus resources and ineffective Latino recruitment.

"We feel it's a viable objective that the University can offer to begin ameliorating this gap between the reality of the United States and the reality of Duke," Flores said.

Although they noted the dearth of Latino professors and facilities in comparison to those of other minority groups, both emphasized that the University has made great strides in just a year since the first meeting.

Flores said the new Center for Latino/a Studies, which will be located on East Campus, and a recently hired director of Latino/a Studies promise to be great assets to the Latino community.

"Almost overnight, things are happening that we can feel very proud of," said Julian Sanchez, director of the Office of Intercultural Affairs. "It's slow, but we've been persistent. Our numbers are gradually increasing."

Apart from new facilities and faculty members, student speakers said aggressive Latino recruiting practices can attract students from a variety of socioeconomic and geographic backgrounds.

"What it is to be Latino is lacking at this University because of recruitment," said junior Nick Pardo, president of Lambda Upsilon Lambda Fraternity, Inc., which sponsored the meeting in conjunction with El Concilio.

Pardo said, however, that the Office of Undergraduate Admissions has been receptive to students' calls to widen the Latino applicant pool through events like Latino Student Recruitment Weekend, which was highly effective this year.

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