Minority students seek roles

Universities a burden, joy for minority students, speaker says

Both the burdens and the opportunities of being a minority in university life were the topics of discussion last night during a speech and open forum session in Boucke Building.

Arturo Velasquez, a lecturer in African and Afro-American Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, was the featured speaker at the event, which was sponsored by the College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP).

Although the lecture, titled "Differing Perspectives in Higher Education: the Role of Minority Students," and subsequent question and answer period were open to all, most of the topics dealt with the burdens and opportunities of being a minority in a university setting.

Velasquez used his own past in his address to the audience. A self-described scholar, he immigrated to the United States at age 12 from El Salvador and pursued his undergraduate education at Rutgers University. He said being a minority on campus was a "unique experience."

"We're hitting people with something different here," said Velasquez. "And it is for us to start a new tradition."

A true understanding of the history of the United States has to encompass an understanding of other cultures, he said. Most students learn history from the "New England" perspective, Velasquez said, and are not taught how other cultures contributed to the building of this country.

He wants minority students to be active, and not "passive recipients of the prevailing theories," he said.

"Minorities need to be in colleges and universities . . . to call into question the dominant perspective," he said. "We need to be active in studying, presenting and preserving our own history."

Minorities "in a sense are novelties," Velasquez said as he recounted experiences he had with people that were fixated with his status as a minority student, instead of as a student.

He relayed several stories in which, because he was the only minority in a setting, he was called upon to give the "minority perspective" on an issue. Much of Velasquez's emphasis dealt with the fact that he does not represent all minorities.

"I thought it was interesting because it finally addressed the issue that Hispanics are not part of the black/white hue in American culture," said Robert Delgado (freshman-secondary education). "A minority isn't just one solid group -- it's made up of many diverse cultures in itself."

The main sponsor of the event, CAMP, is an organization that works with first- year students from a seasonal/migrant farm-worker background.

"I knew that it would be meaningful to the students," said Linda Mantz, a counselor for CAMP.