The Latina/o Faculty and Staff Association held an open discussion forum Wednesday designed to hear the voice of Fresno State’s Latino population.
“What we gather from here we are going to make a report to give to [Fresno State President Dr. Joseph Castro],” said Ambar Alvarez Soto, a transfer admissions coordinator. “This way we can show him all the progress that we have made, but also remind him we aren’t done yet. There are still some issues to look at that are specific to the Latino demographic.”
The discussion forum opened with a short welcome from Fresno State president Joseph Castro and Vice President of Student Affairs Frank Lamas.
“We want to work with you,” Lamas said. “We are not here to be against students; we are here to be with students. And we have things like this because we want to hear your voice about what’s working well, what’s not working well, how we can better help you.”
The forum began as a way to informally document the university experience of Latino staff and studentsin a more personal small group setting, said Dr. Victor Torres, president of the Latina/o Faculty and Staff Association.
“LFSA is working with the university administration in discovering ways to improve the overall experience of Chicano and Latinos on this campus,” Torres said.
After the introductions, groups of students spoke in roundtables about different issues and shared experiences at Fresno State that have impacted them.
“We talked about parking and how difficult it is to get into a ‘W’ course,” said criminology student Janice Yungling, adding she has yet to successfully enroll in such a course.
Torrez stressed the importance of reaching out to the Latino community at Fresno State to begin to understand students and staff.
“When faculty and staff feel valued and supported by the administration, this translates to better services for the students,” Torrez said. “We need to get a sense of how the students feel about how Fresno State is doing in terms of providing the appropriate services. Including students inthe forum provides a manageable opportunity for students to invest themselves so they know they are an active part of the processes and can help influence outcomes that will benefit them and their respective academic and career goals.”
One area of improvement Lamas touched on was advising.
He spoke about a new model of advising where all the colleges will have advising centers that work very closely with the advising faculty in student affairs, which he said will provide students with an improved advising experience.
“I think if there was better advising and more help, people wouldn’t slack off,” said Ana Arredondo, a criminology major.
Last year, Arredondo said she was guided by an advisor to take a class. After following the instructions she was given, she found out she did not need to take the class.
“I could have been doing things I did need instead of wasting my time in classes that I didn’t need,” Arredondo said. “I think that it’s important to participate, because this way they really know what we as students are struggling with.”
LFSA supports Castro’s efforts to improve the overall experience of everyone in the university community.
“His efforts are genuine, and I firmly believe that heis truly listening to the concerns of faculty, staff and students,” Torrez said. “I expect that he will make ‘bold’ changes in the coming years based on what he hears that will improve the university experience for everyone.”
