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[cccpres2b]

At the CC where I work there is a very vocal Latino community organization comprised of retired tenured faculty, retired deans, retired vice-presidents,and retired school board members who make it their mission to bad mouth the school in the community. Their rallying cry is that the CC is not properly serving Latino students.  The organization has been around for about 10 years, average age of its members is close to 80. They keep brining up the same issues from 10 years ago. What happened to Latino hiring, what happened to the Latino student support program, what happened to the Latino Studies degree, what happened to Latino student success? Over the last ten years the Latino student population has doubled in size on the college campus, their rate of completion of Associate degrees is on par with White students, their transfer rates are on par with White students, and their rate of retention is on par with White students, relative to their size of the student body in general.  Yet the Latino community organization can't seem to accept that the more Latino students, means the better graduation/academic achievement. The group insists, that's just because there are more of them at the college campus. The metaphor of when the tide comes in, all boats rise in the harbor. As one of the Latinos in management ranks, I am being asked to be on a taskforce to address the needs of this very vocal Latino community organization. Doe anyone have any ideas how to help with conflict resolution with these old timers? I respect these guys and their experience in the community, I was born and raised in the same community. Yet their issues seem to be from the 1980's. In fact I am in a doctoral program and researched Latino success at the college. I was trying to prove racial discrimination on campus, and was surprised with the academic achievement of the Latino students at the college. I presented my findings to the community organizatio during one of the meetings with the president and the group and nobody believed a word I said. How can we work with the group when they fail to respect advancements for the Latino commuity?

[dr_mcmom]

Ok. So Latino student enrollment is up, as is graduation rate.
What about representation at the tables of key committees?  Administration? Faculty?  If your simply increasing the number of staff, but they're all custodians, doesn't help.  Indeed it may serve just to validate what they perceive as the paternalistic practices of the status quo.

Also, your post is unclear as to what this CO complaints are.  Please be more specific.

[profh]

People are people, and should be seen as so.  True, different groups have different social problems, economic problems, barriers to overcome, etc.

But I think that all of these organizations that are based on gender, race, religion, etc. really create a division among people rather than working towards unifying people as a whole and creating equality.

Maybe there is a lack of representation because Latinos didn't apply for those positions or those that did were not as qualified as a black, a white, or a female applicant.  Do we hire people based on skin tone and ethnic heritage so we can meet some quota that proclaims we are diverse?  Do we put them on a panel or a committee that they're not suited for just so we can be "diverse"?

I'm tired of this group and that group, we need this, or we're not represented properly.  People need to stop bickering and learn to work together.  When I see groups like the Black Campus Association or the Christian College Students Club it make me want to scream and run away.  If anything, from my perspective, it creates a feeling of being an outsider.  Why does my skin have to be a certain color to be in a certain club?  Why do I have practice a certain religion? Or be a woman?  Why can't we just all get together and talk about issues like civilized beings. A little Rodney King anyone?

[Runs, hides in corner, sorry I opened my mouth.]

[prytania3]

I'm at a cc, and my Latino students are very high achievers as well. In fact, why don't you invite some of your Latino students to come with you to meet the old guard? Are they also aware that a lot of these younger Latinos don't even speak Spanish?

As for hiring, people don't realize that it's often hard to hire good minority candidates for faculty because most of the good minority candidates are on Wall Street getting TARP money. They have no interest in working for the chump change education pays.

Oh, that's the other thing, get some successful Latino grads who live locally to go with you. Let them speak about their experience at the school.

Good luck!

[midwestgrad]

Your story is a bit puzzling.  If there really are no legitimate issues here, then why is the CC worried about the organization?  If its average membership age is 80, then wait about five years and the problem should take care of itself, right? 

I suspect that this solution won't work because there *are* legitimate issues remaining to be discussed.  Having a few current Latino students meet the organization sounds like the best approach for getting those issues out on the table.

[cccpres2b]

The community organization in question is very vocal and prone to writing op-ed pieces in the local paper, as well as getting interviewed at every possible community meeting regardless of the venue.  As well the group is very good at recruiting every recently retired Latino from the CC.  The latest recuit was the former VP of Student Services and a beloved administrator for decades ( I know, sounds hard to believe). 

I like the idea of including students for the next meeting.

Also, I am currently sitting on a hiring committee. Trust me, its really difficult to make a case for unqualified applicants, when there are clearly better qualified who unfortunately don't meet the demographic. It doesn't help that the district pays peanuts. I plan on leaving in a few years myself.

Even with the difficutly in hiring, we do have a good show of Latinos in administration, one dean, three managers, not bad for the size of the school.  Problem with hiring faculty is waiting for them to retire.

It seems like the main concern of the group is hiring of Latino faculty and the loss of a Latino retention program for students( i.e. MESA, PUENTE, SSS,  Upward Bound, Enlance, or such).

Thanks for the responses.

[bread_pirate_naan]

what happened to the Latino student support program

If this group is not partnering with you on a support program, you need to start one.  Get these people on campus, organize events and  develop off-campus programs too.  If they are recruiting former faculty and administrators and the group has support program of its own, you need to let them know one of the hardest parts of your job is getting the community to collaborate in addition to criticize.  (ie.  meet-ups, internships*, mentoring**, scholarships***)

Not knowing anything about this group but what you have said, they sound like a "stitch and b!tch."  There is more to serving the community than b!tching.  Expand the elements of your institutional<-->community relationship that do not participate in a call and response of "you're doing it wrong."

Stop complaining and making excuses, respectively, and revitalize your actions/programs.  Put all that energy to work.  Have them raise funds and put together a one day event with the sort of person they want to see hired and donate space and all the resources you can muster.  The people who get loud after they retire from positions with job security should be ashamed of themselves.

*These sorts of experiences can be the foundations of research projects which can be considered Latino Studies.

**Why aren't these faculty being invited back to give a talks about their life experiences as professionals and community service?

***Where are the business people in the community in this conversation and what does this group do with the dues/funds is gathers from its members to support these objectives?