Born with Peruvian and Mexican roots, Carlo Reyna is preparing for college by taking four Advanced Placement courses. He is trying to decide what college is right for him and, like many high school students, Reyna is uncertain about his future.

But Reyna, 17, has concerns beyond his SATs. While staying at Northwestern over a prospective student weekend, Reyna sat down with a group of students Sunday night to discuss what it’s like to be a Latino at NU.

“I haven’t really seen that many Latinos here but I’m sure there are plenty,” said Reyna, who is from Oak Park.

That depends on your definition of “plenty.” About 4 percent of NU students are Latino, according to the Office of Undergraduate Admissions’ Web site. And although Latino enrollment increased toward the end of the 1990s, it slightly dropped last year, with 77 Latinos in the class of 2004.

Despite their small numbers, NU Latinos have created a strong cultural presence on campus in recent years by strengthening student groups and gaining NU recognition for Greek cultural organizations.

But although students have successfully built a social network on campus, their efforts have not broken the academic barrier. NU still lacks a Latino or Latin American studies minor, despite almost a decade of student lobbying.

social task force

As Hispanic Heritage Month comes to an end this week, the Latino presence on campus continues to grow.

With the success of LatiNU, an Oct. 4 social event that brought together music and dance groups to kick off the month, the impact of the Latino community on campus was made evident. Non-Latino students came to Norris University Center in large numbers to participate in the annual festival.

“It was fabulous,” said Laura LaBauve-Maher, coordinator of Hispanic and Latino student services. “We had more than 300 people, and it was one of the most attended Hispanic Heritage Month events we’ve ever had.”

LaBauve-Maher is starting her second year as coordinator. The job was one of many new administrative posts created by NU in the past four years to address the growing number of Latinos on campus.

“This office was born out of a task force,” LaBauve-Maher said. “Part of my campaign is to educate not only my community but also the greater Northwestern community. We all look different, but we still are Hispanics.”

The high turnout at LatiNU is a far cry from where the Latino community was only a few years ago. Some students don’t have to look too far back to remember when organizing events was more painful than pleasing.

“It was really frustrating,” said Bobbie Rivelli, president of Sigma Lambda Gamma sorority. “We would have problems with people showing up to salsa parties. After chalking the sidewalks, posting fliers for people to come to the parties, nobody would come. … We used to have to bring people from Chicago to the event.”

Latino Greek cultural organizations also have strengthened their presence on campus. The Latino fraternity Omega Delta Phi was granted associate membership in the Interfraternity Council last spring. And SLG, the Latina sorority, gained recognition in October 2000 and became Panhellenic’s first recognized cultural organization.

“We had to get recognized somehow,” said SLG founder Esther Contreras, a Weinberg senior. “The university didn’t have a process. We had to give proposals. We now know how much we’ve changed things. The next step is to educate.”

academic opportunities

But students say education is hard without a Latino studies minor.

“This is an issue that has been on the table since 1992 — a decade,” said Weinberg junior Ebo Dawson-Andoh, Associated Student Government academic vice president. “I’m waiting to see some kind of progress this year. What I want to see is something concrete — a definite timeline. Latinos are the fastest growing population in the United States and to not have a more comprehensive program is kind of strange.”

Dawson-Andoh and two Alianza representatives will meet with Weinberg administrators this week to discuss the minor’s status.

Weinberg Dean Eric Sundquist will leave NU at the end of the year for University of California at Los Angeles, but Mary Finn, assistant dean of the Office of Undergraduate Studies and Advising, said a change in leadership might usher in new academic opportunities. Students can look forward to a Latino studies minor within the next five years, Finn said.

“It’s not going to happen this year,” Finn said. “I hope it goes before the faculty next year, but that’s a hope. We have a new dean coming, but everything has moved forward since last year. I can’t emphasize enough how important student input has been.”

But Finn said the creation of a Latino studies minor needs more than student support. Classes cannot exist without faculty members to teach them, and a curriculum would have to encompass a variety of departments, Finn said.

Some Latino studies classes already have been created. As a result of student input, changes to Weinberg’s course offerings will take effect as early as Winter Quarter.

Students will be able to take Introduction to Latino Studies, a course about the history of American Latinos in the 20th century. In Spring Quarter, new courses will include an anthropology class about people living on the U.S.-Mexican border as well and field research classes.

These classes count toward a minor in Latin American and Caribbean studies. But students say they still need a Latino studies minor to focus on Spanish-speaking people in the United States.

“There is a pressure to represent your people,” said Rivelli, a Weinberg sophomore. “A minor would be helpful.”

‘Get the Word out’

While the Latinos on campus continue to work together for more change, students say part of the solution will come only with a larger Latino population.

“We’ve kind of broken down a couple of walls,” Contreras said, doing a judo chop in mid-air. “(But) we’re not going to get on by just standing around. This campus is not representative of the United States.”

Five years ago, NU’s freshman class consisted of only 70 Latino students, according to Alicia Elizabeth Enciso, assistant director of admissions. Enrollment increased to a peak of 94 Latino students in 1998, but has since dropped to 77 for the Class of 2004, the most recent class for which data are available.

“It’s been going up for Latinos in the course of the last 10 years,” Enciso said. “I think our biggest challenge is to get the word out about Northwestern. I might go to a high school that has a large percentage of minorities, but they won’t come to talk to me. They aren’t familiar with Northwestern.”

Enciso said the Undergraduate Office of Admissions is trying to draw more Latinos by working with African American Student Affairs. The two departments travel to high schools across the country, especially in the Southwest.

“I want to see numbers go up,” Enciso said. “I think that we need to do a lot more work in Chicago with the seeding process — by making Northwestern known to middle-school students. Ultimately, I would like to see a whole program for outreach.”

meager but good

Reyna heard about Northwestern because he is from the area and his parents teach at University of Illinois-Chicago.

After spending the weekend with Alianza members at the International Studies Residential College, he said went home Monday with more knowledge about NU and what the school has to offer.

“I like it a lot better than the last time I came to visit,” he said. “My hosts seemed like they were having a real good time being Hispanics around campus. There was a lot of laughter, a lot of partying … and they said that the Hispanic population was kind of meager but it was still a pretty close, good community.”