Minority students at NIU experience culture shock when they arrive.

That was the conclusion of a recent teaching seminar featuring a panel of minority students and faculty members who were concerned with some statistics found by an NIU minority interests director.

George Gutierrez, director of University Resources for Latinos, found that 90 percent of minority students randomly surveyed at NIU never approach their professors.

Gutierrez said that figure does stand out, but he thinks it represents only certain issues.

“I think the minority students do talk to their professors about minor issues,” he said, “but when it comes to important things, they do not want to take the time to really get to know their professor.”

Panel member Colleen Halliman, who also is the Student Association academic adviser, said panel members gave their own personal experiences and suggestions on how teachers can improve relations with their minority students.

“I’ve had many experiences where I am the only black student in the classroom, but I have an aggressive personality where I don’t wait to be called on in class,” Halliman said.

The survey also revealed more than 80 percent of NIU faculty reported no particular difficulty in the academic progress of minority students. Yet the retention rate, at least for Hispanic students, was less than 30 percent.

Frank Bazeli, faculty instructional consultant, is responsible for organizing five teaching seminars each year and said he was interested in doing one on minority concerns.

“Overall, this seminar has been one of the best we have ever had on campus,” Bazeli said. “It can be very helpful to the minority student at NIU.”

Bazeli said students on the panel came up with a list of concerns that make minority students feel alienated: when teachers don’t call on minority students as often as possible, make insensitive statements or jokes that embarrass minority students, or provide examples and cultural references to which minority students cannot relate.

Some methods the panel came up with to get rid of minority student classroom stress include: use a questioning approach that includes all students, be sure students understand the vocabulary being used and include terms with specialized meaning and try to be as observant as possible.