by Jaclyn Roco
Editor in Chief
The University of La Verne is in the process of re-applying for an Irvine grant, which will help fund campus diversity initiatives for the years 2003-2006.
The University submitted a proposal called “Designing Specific Data Books to Use as a Tool to Improve Institutional Effectiveness for Students from Underserved Populations” for the grant last week.
This would be the University’s third Campus Diversity Initiative grant, said Derek Vergara, director for multicultural research and campus diversity. The University will be notified in June whether it is accepted or not, and the money, if provided, will be used starting in August, he said.
Established in 1937, the James Irvine Foundation, who donates the grant, is “dedicated to enhancing the social, economic and physical quality of life throughout California and to enriching the state’s intellectual and cultural environment,” according to the Foundation’s Web site at www.irvine.org.
One of the Foundation’s prior focuses was “to enrich the quality and diversity of educational, cultural, human services and community-building programs throughout the state,” the Web site said. “California needs to ensure that the students, faculty and curricula at its college campuses reflects the state’s diversity, and that all college students are prepared for participation and leadership in a diverse society.”
But the current focus toward diversity issues has shifted, said Daniel Loera, multicultural affairs director, from emphasis on students to an emphasis on institutionalizing to find out what the needs of the school under consideration are and to meet those needs.
The Foundation basically wants to find out what needs to happen in the University to assure the success of the students, Loera said, to find out how all the work we do now can become institutionalized.
“It’s a pretty extensive process,” Loera said. “(The Foundation) is not going to fund diversity initiatives. It is (instead) going to support the (University’s) work.”
Institutionalizing diversity initiatives has always been something the University has been striving for, Vergara said, and the University has a responsibility to find out where the improvements are, and what the next step is.
What makes the focus different now is not dealing with how we do it in terms of specific efforts, but developing strategies after using data to improve service of delivery a measure of student effectiveness, Vergara said.
To encourage institutionalizing diversity awareness, the Irvine Foundation may, for example, pay for research, to see how successful the University can be in doing certain things, Loera said.
“Really it is trying to weave our diversity issues, our initiatives, within the fabric of the University,” Vergara said. “This is our boldest approach to drive our initiatives and make sure we use data to develop strategies to better improve delivery systems for underrepresented students, but really it’s looking at all students.”
Concentrating on diversity is sure to bring up more problems, especially when gaps or discrepancies can be seen in what kind of students are represented, Vergara said.
“Part of what (the Foundation) requires is that the University take more ownership, more responsibility,” Loera said. “It’s an intricate weaving of how (ULV) is being funded, and what it is responsible for, and defining what that is.
“Student success is bottom line,” Loera said.
The Irvine grant, however, is not just limited to diversity issues. Other departments are also able to apply for a grant.
In addition to that, administrators are also given the privilege by the Foundation to select students or faculty members to become recipients.
Paul Alvarez, clinical supervisor for the athletic training education program, received the Irvine grant in 1998 to help him pursue graduate school.
Historically, the grant has helped improve class diversity in terms of gender, ethnicity, development in learning and so on, Alvarez said.
It has also helped the University gain the services of a certain graduate to come back in a role of faculty member, Alvarez said. The University can also gain the services of a previous faculty member who should be encouraged to pursue further education, he said.
Although the grant usually is given to minorities, such as Alvarez who is of Japanese and Latino descent, there have been efforts to widen possible candidates to those who have somehow improved diversity issues on campus through their service.
One of the criteria is that the person somehow emphasizes, or enhances cultural diversity on his or her campus, he said.
Alvarez said he is glad that other candidates have been acknowledged because he is uncomfortable with using the accident of his ethnic background as a mode of winning the grant.
“It’s reverse discrimination,” he said. “Supporting the school does not preclude ethnic diversity.”
After accepting the offer of the grant through Aghop Der-Karabetian, associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Alvarez was met with the requirement to stay five years at ULV upon completion of a degree in graduate school.
“It was too good to refuse,” he said. “I don’t think I could have afforded to go on. We are paid on a level that cannot (pay for that). In return, I am committing to teaching in whatever capacity assigned (that is) of my expertise.”
Although the Irvine grant may seem like a give-give situation on the part of the University, Alvarez said the campus benefits from it because it is being provided with the services of more capable and qualified instructors.
“The University looks at the philosophical benefits,” Alvarez said. “If there is a student who sees diversity among the faculty that they’re successful there can be a sociological phenomenon of thinking that ‘I can be successful’ (too).”
“That’s quite a powerful incentive,” he said.
Alvarez said inspiring someone is something he hopes to achieve after having been given the chance to pursue another degree.
“What I’m doing is unusual,” Alvarez said, “I’m doing something hopefully for this University to continue to be active (in the case) that there will be an occasion where a student is a person who is of my race.”
