THE METROPOLITAN « JANUARY 31, 2008 « METRO « A5
Task force prioritizes Hispanic initiative
President Jordan plans
to review agenda to
achieve HSI status
By Rob fisher
rfishe18@mscd.edu
It seems people may have the
wrong idea about Metro’s Hispanic
Serving Institution initiative. And
changing the name of the initiative
is one of 55 final recommendations
submitted by the HSI task force last
week.
Changing the name of the initia-
tive is something Luis Torres, co-chair
of the HSI task force and interim as-
sociate dean of letters, arts and sci-
Violence in Kenya hits close to home for Metro students
By Andrew Flohr-spence
spencand@mscd.edu
Kenya may be half a world away
from the Mile High City, but the daily
reports of rioting mobs, police bru-
tality and ethnically motivated at-
tacks since the disputed election one
month ago have a number of Metro
students and professors paying close
attention.
For many, the news is not from
an unknown, abstract country.
Metro has professors from Ke-
h e l a r g e s t
T
o c c e r L e a g u e s
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ences, still had mixed feelings about
after the last meeting.
“We are working under the title
the federal government gives, but
there is really no need to,” Torres said.
“I think that the committee thought
it may be misleading, especially when
you consider that many of the recom-
mendations really are to change the
infrastructure of the institution.”
The primary goal of Metro’s
HSI initiative is to raise full-time La-
tino student enrollment to 25 percent
with 50 percent of those Latino stu-
dents defined as low-income by the
U.S. Census Bureau. Doing so will
make Metro eligible for millions of
dollars in federal grant money, which
nya on the faculty, Kenyan exchange
students and students who have
traveled to Kenya participating in a
summer program from the African
and African-American studies de-
partment.
In fact, Raila Odinga, one of the
presidential candidates embroiled in
the election dispute, visited Metro
last September and spoke at St. Ca-
jetan’s Center.
“I talk with Kenya every morn-
ing on the phone — I watch live
Kenyan television on the Internet
r e n a i n t h e r e g i o n !
indoor a
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would benefit all students. Latino stu-
dents comprise 13 percent of Metro’s
student population.
“It really is important for us to be
clear to the public that Metro wants
to serve the students in its population
area and a large percentage of those
students are Latino,” Torres said.
In April 2007, Metro’s board of
trustees charged President Stephen
Jordan with developing recommen-
dations to help the college achieve
HSI status.
Jordan called upon the faculty
and staff to help with this endeavor
and have recommendations by Feb-
ruary 2008.
In July 2007, a 65-member task
every day,” said assistant professor
Lucas Shamala, who is from Kenya
and has spent the past month anx-
iously watching for news on people
and places he knows.
He has brothers and sisters there
and extended family, not to mention
countless friends.
So far in the town where they
live, Shamala said there was some
violence at the beginning, but “the
real problems are in the Rift Valley
— within walking distance.”
He said the problem for his fam-
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Final Recommendations from the HSI Task Force»
•Create a different name for the HSI campaign
•Create an interactive HSI website
•Declaration for Major by completion of first 45 credit hours
•Provide scholarships for first-generation college students
•Establish on-site admissions services in local high schools
•Review and evaluate Metro’s online classes
•Identify new programs that will attract and retain Latino/a students
•Revise Last Grade Stands Policy and Forgiveness Policy
force was formed and divided into six lege would face, from improving stu-
subcommittees responsible for draft- dent recruitment and retention to
ing recommendations. looking at public relations and cur-
These subcommittees then looked riculum development.
at a wide range of challenges the col-
TASK FORCE Continued on A6»
ily is that no one is able to go to work
and food is becoming hard to get.
The election was supposed to be
different. Shamala, who was partly
responsible for bringing Odinga to
Metro when he traveled through the
U.S. last year, said he believes the
problem in Kenya is that incumbent
Mwai Kibaki refuses to submit to the
will of the people and has rigged the
election to stay in power.
“You just have to look at what
happened,” Shamala said. “The elec-
tion itself was so peaceful, and the KENYA Continued on A7»
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