1986 La Voz de Aztlan

              <
VOZ
AZTLAN
CALIFORNIA STATE
UNIVERSITY
FRESNO
FE6. 19, 1»S6
Dr. Arciniega addresses higher
By Randy Guerra
Staff Writer
education
The Chicano Latino Student
Association launched its first of many
planned Chicano Lecture series on
February 5th, with Dr. Arciniega as the
guest speaker who addressed the issue of
the importance of minorities in higher
education.
Dr. Tomas Arciniega, President of
California State University Bakersfield,
and former CSU, Fresno vice-president
Of Academic Affairs was back on campus
to discuss this vital issue and offer possible
solutions to this serious and complex
problem.
Dr. Arciniega feels that "there has been
very little progress in attempts to provide
equal opportunity to Chicanos at levels of
higher education." According to Arciniega
this is because the focus of those in power
of implementing educational reform are
focusing too much on increasing the quality
of education instead of providing equal
educational opportunity across the board,
regardless of race, creed, or color.
Arciniega quoted Bernard Harleston's
viewpoint on this matter which states, "In
dealing with this problem, we must ask
first how do we keep minorities.in school
then address the issue of how we can
improve the quality of education."
"The present tendency of the educational
administrative body to replace opportunity
as a term defined as 'academic excellence'
needs to»be changed,"said Arceniega. The
undercurrent of. this train of thought he
said "is the need to limit access, which in
actuality limits educational access to only
those who are destined to be successful."
Dr. Arciniega's experience as a member
of the commission which compiles state
wide data dealing with Hispanics and
higher education revealed astonishing facts
which decry the effectiveness of the present
educational reform policies. Arceniega
stated, "Hispanics are the most under-
represented groups in California. The
drop-out rate of Chicanos in urban areas
is between 40-50%, moreover in higher
Chicano demographic concentrated areas
the precentage is even higher.
According to Arciniega, "Chicano enrollment in higher educational institutions
since the 1960's Civil Rights era has been
negligible and since 1976 the short lived
improvements such as EOP, introduction
to Chicano-Latino Studies on college
curriculums has decreased."
Dr. Arciniega is impatient with a system
that graduates Chicano students from
high school who are unprepared for higher
education, 60% of which are forced to
enter the Jr. College level. Even more
alarming stated Arciniega, is the fact that
of these percentages only very small
numbers of minorities actually graduate
from the University."
Arciniega stated that "too much time is
being spent by administrators proclaiming
their fairness of allowing minorities into
their hollowed halls instead of concentrating ones efforts to enhance continued
progress, and more importantly on graduation."
Dr. Arciniega feels that the government
posture has to be changed. He compared
his ideals of Higher Education to those of
Lyndon B. Johnson who stated: "The
Higher Education Act would provide the
opportunity for any graduating senior to
attend and apply to any university in the
U.S. and not be neglected because he is
poor." Jorfnson also stated, said Arciniega "I could never rest until all people
had the opportunity to open that door."
Lawrence Tover
Dr. Arciniega speaks out at CSUF
Dr. Arciniega said, "the present posture
of the federal administration to decrease
financial aid, funding grants, and the proposed revision of college entrance requirements that will take place in 1988 will
only augment the problem of educational
inequality."
He decries the indisputable fact that
minorities comprise the greatest faction of
those to be affected by these changes and
finds this to be criminial and immoral.
The latter part of Arceniega's speech
attempted to provide solutions in order to
increase minority enrollment in higher
education. Among the many solutions,
Dr. Arciniega stated, "on an academic
level, present tracking of students should
be utilized by more carefully analyzing
and preparing the direction for necessary
college preparatory courses; faculty who
are aware and sensitive to cultural pluralistic ideals should be recruited; counselors
should inform prospective students and
their families about college requirements,
financial aid options and programs for
which they may be eligible."
Perception of change in school board
By Frank Aviles
Staff Writer
For a long time the Chicano Commun^
ity in the Fresno district has been under-
represented. In the past the school board
has failed to focus its attention where it is
needed, in the Central and Southeast
Fresno schools where the population is
highly Hispanic.
According to Ben Benavidez, President
of JOVEN (Juvenile Organizations for
Viable Education Now), "the major problems are centered in the Central and Southeast Fresno schools and something needs
to be done."
"The overcrowded conditions in some
of these schools is ridiculous. Schools that
should be about 500—600 in population
currently have between 1100-1200 students," said Benavidez. He said this causes
schools to run year around.
He added that "some of these schools
have very poor air conditioning systems
which makes it difficult for students to
concentrate in class."
"Going to school year round is very
detrimental to the Chicano Community
since most of the Chicano students need
the summer to work in order for their
families to have just the normal things
that other people have such as food, clothing, shelter, and other necessities,"added
Benavidez.
According to   Benavidez,  the  school
board has neglected to take care of these
and other problems that exist in the Central and Southeast Fresno'school district
such as the high drop-out rate, suspension
rate and low proficiency scores.
"We need a Chicano on the school
board. Someone who will represent the
Chicano community and who can sensitize with Chicano related problems in the
schools," stated Benavidez.
According to Dr. Gerald McMenamin,
a Linquistic professor at CSUF and current school board member, "it would definitely help if they had a Hispanic on the
school board. The school board represents the people and not having a Chicano
on the school board means that not all
people are being represented."
If the board members were elected by
districts instead of at large. Dr. McMenamin believes that there would most
likely be a Chicano on the school board to
represent Hispanics.
Dr. McMenamin, an active member of.
Chicano organizations, feels that he along
with Mary Curry, who is also a school
board member, will be able to contribute
to the minority community. "Neither of
the previous board members were connected to the Chicano community like I
am," stated Dr. McMenamin, "nor were
they connected to the Black community
like Mary Curry.
We are interested in forming a task-
force on excellence in which the commun
ity, businesses and faculty will get together
and try to solve these problems as a
whole," stated Dr. McMenamin.
Dr. McMenamin said that "one of the
underlined problems for minority students
is  that  too  many  people believe  that
minority students can't achieve."
If progress amongst the Central and
Southeast Fresno schools is to be made,
both Dr. McMenamin and Benavidez
believe that these problems must be immediately addressed.
Community outraged
By Lourdes Espinosa
Staff Writer
You are a teenager in 1986, living in
Southeast Fresno. You are alone with the
lights off and you hear people moving
around your home. You're not alone. You
grab a gun, just in case, after all you do
live in an escalating crime rate neighborhood. Someone knocks. You open the
door and see an unidentified man with a
gun pointed at you. Do you or don't you
point your gun?
According to Frank Quintana, President of Fresno County Mexican American Political Association (M.A.P. A.), the
preceding could be the way Ronald Lopez
was shot on January 25, 1986.
According to reports, 16 year old Lopez
was shot by officer Raymond Holquinn in
"self defense." Lopez, a resident of Sou
theast Fresno, pointed an empty handgun
at Holquinn on Friday, January 25, 1986
around 11:00 p.m.
Self defense is not the issue here,
according to Quintana but rather "proper
police procedure."Quintana said, "I think
the whole approach of how it was han-
deled was unjustifiable."
Quintana believes that the Lopez shooting could have been avoided, had proper
police procedure been taken. Quintana
pointed out that if the officers had identified themselves instead of tiptoing around
the Lopez residence, driven up to the
Lopez home with blaring sirens informing
of their arrival, used tear gas or blown
horns to coax him out, then perhaps
Lopez would still be alive today. "The
See LopCZ page 4