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Show Recruiting increases community Chicanos help themselves, otfi By KURT NUTTING Chronicle Staff The number of Chicano students at the University has increased from 25 three years ago to 325 today, reports Mike Melendez, Chicano student advisor in the Minorities Center (part of the Dean of Students office). Mr. Melendez attributes much of this increase to a concerted campaign to recruit and retain Chicano students from across the state. Working with the office of High School and Junior College Services, Pete Mendez and others have "developed a lot of contacts m the community and with Chicano high school student aides" to feed names to the University. "High school days " conferences with tours "awareness workshops," and explanations of admissions and University procedures are held on campus to familiarize Chicano students with the University community. Other recruiting techniques include mailing brochures to Chicano students and their high school counselors and individual contacts made by Chicanos already at the University. Once here, Melendez reports Chicano students do remarkably well although many had very low high school grades and low predicted University grade point averages. Part of the problem with predicted CPAs, Melendez says, is that the American College Test (ACT) is used and is culturally biased for WASPs. He points out that tests only examine academic achievement, not desire to succeed. If high school CPAs and predicted CPAs were the final answers, many Chicanos would be discouraged before they started if they didn't know other Chicanos had made it through the University. But, to the contrary, Chicano students here have "well over a two-point" average and a yearly dropout rate of 16, lower than the campus average. About half receive some financial aid ranging from scholarship grants to work-study arrangements. On the whole, Chicano students tend to enter education, the humanities, and other liberal arts-subjects out of the pure sciences About 120 of the 325 are freshmen, 150 are sophomores and juniors, and the rest are seniors and graduate students. Six are in medical school and three are in law; in the past, Melendez says, Utah has had no Chicano lawyers or doctors. The biggest problem faced by Chicanos as a group is "the shock of adjustment" to a large University, which is :. ' because most Chicane-J been psychologically r come here. Melendez the severe problems to Chicano population sc hools are a severe bit education; 60 dropr.1 the 12th grade. It all ace lot of discouraged hi- d more Chicanos here a giving students a cK n Melendez says) "to :l sufficient and self-ret' n But a general feeling rr)f "the University at lw understand what were do." Although Meff 't "the administration hai-'-good," the faculty issp p departments go out o' e to help individual st some faculty men committed. "There hp centage of the studafc is sympathetic." All ' attitudes range from ts tokenism to since. ;c mitment" ,lr The Chicano studenl;fj Minorities Center e b part-time staff aiU dition to Melendez .f "I'm really very P program-we're do. S -g to the community he adds a fina . . asking is things tof i |
