Group aims for access to administration

By Tiffany Maggard

Daily Staff Reporter

Latino students on campus may now have a new effective means of attaining leadership and influence at the University - by going straight to the top.

Members of the Collegiate Leadership Development Program have met weekly throughout the semester with high-level University administrators including interim Dean of Students Frank Cianciola. During the meetings, administrators familiarized the students with the roles of their jobs so students will be able to contact individuals who can help them make a difference in the Latino community.

LSA junior Janet Padilla, who worked on the program with LSA senior Nick Delgado, said CLDP is an alternative means to making Latino concerns heard on campus rather than through other facets of activism like public protests.

"Our goals are to have constructive, bilateral conversation between the administration and the Latino community, because usually we have to be outside screaming and protesting - trying to get heard," she said.

Padilla said the program, which has been successfully implemented at several universities across the nation, including University of California at Los Angeles and Michigan State University, has five fundamental missions, which entail familiarizing Latino students with University officials and the internal structure of the University and making officials aware of the students' talent and potential.

CLDP member Rosio Suarez, an LSA freshman, said the group was eager to implement these goals. "We wanted to talk to administration and see how Latinos were represented on their agendas. We wanted to make sure our voices were heard more at U of M," she said.

Padilla and Delgado introduced the program to Cianciola earlier this semester after learning about it through the United States Hispanic Leadership Institute based in Chicago, from which the program originated.

Cianciola said he was impressed by the program when it was brought to him and believes it has proven itself successful. "Basically, as I reviewed the proposal, I thought it was an opportunity to have substantive conversation between students and faculty. Whenever you can have that kind of dialog, it's a good thing," he said.

LSA sophomore Victor Soto, a CLDP member, said the group was able to probe several of its concerns about minority representation on campus - concerns not exclusive to Latinos.

He said CLDP members, when working with University Director of Undergraduate Admissions Ted Spencer and Associate Provost for Academic Affairs Lester Monts, had the opportunity to address their concern for the drop in minority enrollment and the need for more minority faculty members.

Padilla said the program will continue next year, but members are still aiming to make it an official University program. Soto said he and other members of CLDP are committed to making that happen.

Soto said CLDP members from this semester's session plan to see that student representatives of the Latino community make incoming Latino students aware of the program during fall orientation so it will remain strong and successful.

"I thought it was a positive experience - we met with a lot of people, were made aware of who the administrators are. It helped humanize them ... it also helped me understand what they go through. A few of them really fight for students, but they have to go through a lot of redline and politics," Soto said.

Delgado said CLDP members from the University will be recognized at a national convention in Chicago next weekend.