Institutions of higher education recruit and admit or hire Chicano students, faculty, staff, and employees. Recruitment must take place according to the following policies:
1. The number of Chicano students
who qualify for admission shall determine the funds that must be procured
by the institution in providing adequate support programs academic and
non-academic. It is totally unacceptable that funds continue to determine
the number of Chicano students to be enrolled.
2. Chicano faculty, staff, and employees
must be recruited for positions in all areas - and at every level - of
the university and college structure. Obstructive criteria must not limit
Chicano access to these positions.
3. Institutions must immediately
accept and establish the principle of proportional representation for Chicanos
- students, faculty, staff,” and employees - in all areas and all levels
of higher education. For example, the per-centage of Chicano students enrolled
at those institu-tions located in areas with a significant Chicano population
must equal the percentage of school-age Chicanos in those areas. Thus,
the percentage of Chicano students at UCLA must equal the percentage of
school-age Chicanos in the Los Angeles - Long Beach area: so for UCSB and
the Tri-Counties area and for Cal State Hayward in South Alameda County.
Those colleges and universities situated in areas with few or no Chicanos
must refer to the percentage of Chicanos in the state to determine the
percentage of Chicano students they must enroll. Presently the Chicano
student-age population in state of California is approximately seventeen
percent.
4. For recruitment of Chicanos to
be effective, committees - made up of Chicano students, administrators,
employees, faculty, and community people - must be established with the
responsibility for recruiting Chicano students and for screening Chicano
candidates for campus positions.
Scope of Recruitment
Institutions’ of higher education must accept fundamental responsibility for recruiting Chicanos who will enroll as students or work as faculty, staff, or employees. Given the traditional and systemic indifference, even hostility, of higher education to Chicanos, institutions must never assume that Chicanos must first seek them out.
Various sources can be contacted and used in recruiting Chicano students. Chicano Community organizations, Chicano student organizations, high schools and junior colleges, Chicano graduates, sympathetic schools, clearinghouses, high school and junior college graduates, the Chicano Press Association and other media, must all be thoroughly and regularly informed of available educational and financial aid opportunities. A uniform application form and’ procedure must be established and all literature (and other media) must be in both English and Spanish. Throughout the recruitment process the importance of higher education to Chicanos must be emphasized and Chicanos strongly encouraged to continue their education.
In the final analysis, recruitment activities in institutions of higher education must contribute to the recruitment process by bringing their resources to bear on the deplorable conditions affecting Chicanos today in the elementary and secondary schools and in the junior or community colleges. Elementary and secondary school systems urgently need to develop effective counseling services, Chicano Studies pro-grams, and other support services. More bilingual Chicano teachers, counselors, and administrators? must be hired to work with Chicano students. Those schools with a majority of Chicano students must have a Chicano principal, and those schools having a significant number! of Chicanos an assistant to the principal, whose responsibility will be Chicano affairs.
What applies to the secondary and elementary schools applies with equal force to the junior or community colleges which, almost with no exception, are failing in their role as a transitional institution between high school and four-year colleges and universities. Chicano students in com-munity colleges do not receive adequate preparation for lack of necessary counseling, tutoring, and relevant study pro-grams. Four year institutions must help the community colleges develop effective programs in all these areas and to utilize Federal funds for student support must be sought, including Economic Opportunity Grants, National Defense Student Loans, and Work Study Programs. Realism must replace the multiple myths that surround the community colleges, one of which is that they are free. Fees are in fact negligible, but there are other costs (totaling it is estimated at $900 a year) which must be taken into account: book expenses, transportation costs, parking fees, and so forth. For the Chicano, another “cost” is even more significant, namely, by choosing to attend a community college he deprives his family of income that he would otherwise earn (about $3000 annually). Another myth is that the community is academically less demanding than four-year institutions. While competition may not always be as intense, -the com-munity college does in fact require students to do college-level work.
In all those matters it is assumed that the responsibility of private institutions of learning is the same as that of public institutions. Moreover. because. of their greater administrative and financial flexibility major private institutions have greater opportunities to attack and solve problems.
Effective recruitment of Chicanos - students, faculty, staff, and employees - cannot take place unless and until there is a satisfactory relationship between recruitment programs on the one hand and hiring and admissions criteria and decision-making on the other.
In the area of student recruitment, the present relationship between recruitment and admissions is highly unsatisfactory. Colleges and universities are using “standard“ admissions criteria - grade point average, Scholastic Aptitude Test scores, etc. - to evaluate the college potential of Chicano students. Evidence shows clearly that these criteria are culturally biased and thus they are not reliable indicators of college success for Chicanos. Culturally relevant tests and indicators must be used in identifying the college potential of Chicano students. Also useful in evaluating applicants are recommendations (but not necessarily from traditional sources such as high school teachers and counselors) and personal interviews. Most importantly, institutions of higher learning must recognize that the assessment of a Chicano's college potential depends, in the subjective interpretation of his motivation, ability, ground. Only people that relate to and understand the background of the Chicano student can satisfactorily make such a subjective interpretation; hence Chicanos must make the final decision on student admissions.
Colleges and universities must also use culturally relevant criteria in hiring Chicano faculty, staff, and employees. Above all, they must not be inflexible and rigid in using tra-ditional indicators of qualification. This applies to training programs for non-academic personnel.
Training programs must
be .set up to assist non-academic and non-administrative Chicano personnel
(technicians, groundsmen, clerks, and skilled maintenance personnel in
advancing in their respective Fields. Bilingual skills must be recognized
as a special talent and adequate compensation made for such capabilities.
Effective means for resolving personnel grievances must be provided. Academic
opportunities must be opened to all Chicano personnel and encouragement
given to them to take advantage of these opportunities.
