Editor’s note: This is the first in a four-part series on race relations at NIU. Today’s analysis deals with the complexity of a problem so much of NIU’s community is trying to solve.

“Racism exists in the larger society … (and) people on campus represent a microcosm of that larger society,” said Michael Gonzales, director of the Center for Latino Studies, in describing the racial atmosphere at NIU.

Racism is an everyday fact at NIU, and its problems include not only the racial slurs and actions most people believe constitute racism, but other race problems that extend far into the very fabric of university life.

One needs only to look at the numbers to begin to get a feel for the extent of race-related problems with which NIU must grapple.

First of all, minorities are underrepresented in the faculty ranks. According to NIU Institutional Research, at the start of the 1992 fall semester there were 20 African-American and 22 Latino faculty members out of a total faculty of 978. That’s about 2 and 2.2 percent of the total faculty, respectively.

African-Americans do make up 9.3 percent of NIU’s administrative staff positions, which is much closer to the 12.1 percent African-Americans hold in the nation’s general population. Still, they make up only 4.1 percent of the total university staff.

Latinos see an even greater imbalance in their representation at NIU. One and nine-tenths percent of NIU’s administrators and only 1.6 percent of the total university staff are Latino. In contrast, 9 percent of the general population is Latino.

Minority students don’t fare much better.

While NIU has an overall graduation rate that is rather low, a quick glance at the graduation rates of minority students shows something apparently is not working right.

Graduation rates of the 1987 incoming class at NIU showed that although 57 percent of white students graduated, only 40 percent of Latino students and a dismal 20 percent of African-American students graduated in the same time period.

Although racism could be blamed for the low minority graduation numbers, the general consensus is that it would be far too shallow to do so, and would, in fact, ignore the root of the problem.

“It would be much too simple to attribute the lack of graduation of minorities solely to racism,” said Tendaji Ganges, director of Educational Services and Programs (ESP).

Many administrators concerned with minority issues agree with that assessment, being quick to point out other contributing factors.

“The economic situation of the country is playing havoc on middle- and low-income families that are trying to put kids through school,” said Van Anthony Amos, director of programing at the Center for Black Studies.

Minority students, being proportionately poorer than their white counterparts, have a harder time being able to afford school, and thus tend to drop out more often due to economic reasons, he said.

Also a contributing factor, according to Amos, is that many students “fall through the cracks.” Some students, attending a large university and away from home for the first time, have a hard time adjusting to campus life. There are many questions that might need answering, such as “what they should do and what they shouldn’t do in regards to financial aid, their major, etc. … and many students’ perception is that they go seek help but are given the bureaucratic runaround.”

Gonzales added to the list, “Minority students aren’t getting appropriate preparation in high school. (In college) many students aren’t getting appropriate counseling, the programs that are in place to keep these students in need more resources and some students have difficulty making adjustments to university life.”

But as Ganges said, “Is graduation the only measure of a student’s education?” He added, “Even if a student has graduated, but hasn’t learned what he or she needs to make a living, what good is that?”

As obvious as the problems might be, however, the solutions seem frustratingly elusive. And although the problems demand answers, the complexity of these problems ensure that solutions won’t be readily available.

“There isn’t one answer unless there’s a major conspiracy to keep people from that answer, which I don’t personally believe,” Ganges said.

NIU is running several projects to help minority recruitment and retention, and these programs have met with some success, although data for a few of these programs still is being collected, Ganges said.

He also added the administration at NIU is strongly supporting programs aimed at improving minority retention and graduation, but a lack of funds makes it impossible to expand these programs to their full potential.

Still, all the lavishly funded programs in the world couldn’t improve what might be the biggest roadblock to the success of a minority student.

Many minority students at NIU say there isn’t a positive racial climate on campus, and that dealing with racism at school compounds the adjustment problems all students must deal with.

Within the last couple of years, racial events at NIU have ranged from the painting of swastikas on the dorm rooms of Jewish students, dorm residents seeing “Kill All Niggers” painted with shoe polish on the snow outside their windows, and NIU student Paul Engel’s poetry which was labeled Nazi, racist and homophobic by much of the NIU community to less blatant, but equally destructive racial slurs thrown out of car windows.

Guadalupe Luna, an assistant professor in the College of Law, said, “You have to understand that, unlike whites, (minorities) also have to worry about racism.”

People also must understand that racism, as hidden as it might be, exists and is felt by many students.

“It’s out there. It may be really quiet, but I can feel it,” said NIU student Miguel Guevana.

Tomorrow: The Latino/Latina experience at NIU.

“Is graduation the only measure of a student’s education? Even if a student has graduated, but hasn’t learned what he or she needs to make a living, what good is that?”

-Tendaji Ganges director of Educational Services and Programs