Show Me the Dinero

Latino students and faculty question how CSULB’s $2.8 million grant—meant to help Latinos—is being spent

Comments (0) By DAFFODIL J. ALTAN Wednesday, Nov 21 2007

A stinging Daily 49er editorial published Oct. 30 bore the headline "And All HSI Got Was This Cruddy T-Shirt" and called on the university to explain how the first installation of the grant had been spent. That same day, Gould sent a lengthy e-mail to students and faculty explaining how the grant is being administered. "It was felicitous timing," says Gould, explaining that the message had been in the works for several months. "I couldn't possibly have prepared it that fast." She says the message is the first in what she hopes will be ongoing communication to the university community about the grant. "I would say that was perhaps missing," she says.

In her first message, the mentors were listed, along with a long list of other programs in the works, such as a conference on immigrant student success, the hiring of a full-time director to oversee the grant, teaming up with the Latino Student Union on student outreach and sponsoring a handful of Latino students to attend national conferences, among other activities. None of the costs of these programs was listed, however.

OC Weekly photo illustration.

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"Nobody really knows what's been going on, so the provost's e-mail was a good thing to see," says Moreno. "It's good to know some things are being planned." But he wonders if the list was $600,000 worth of activities, and he really worries that Latino student input is still not figuring into how that yearly chunk of money is being spent. "One thing is to partner with the Latino Student Union to do programs, but another is deciding how that money is going to be spent," he says. "Do Latino students get to vote? Or do other people get to decide what's best for Latino students?"

DALTAN@OCWEEKLY.COM