An NIU student believes she was discriminated against by the English department.

NIU freshman Maria Elina Ovalle has accused the English department of segregating Latinos into an English 103 class which emphasized English as a Second Language (ESL).

Ovalle was identified by the English department and the University Resources for Latinos as an incoming freshman Latino student. Because of this identification, her schedule was changed to an English 103 class taught by an instructor specializing in ESL.

Ovalle, who graduated from high school as salutatorian, said she resents being in the class. “I can’t stand being in the class. I don’t put a lot of effort, but I’m doing pretty well,” she said.

Freshman English Director Robert Self said the original plan was to notify the 80 affected students of the schedule change and let them decide if they needed the class.

“We’ve been concerned for a while about the number of students who come in as regularly-admitted students and have trouble with language skills,” he said. “We’ve been trying to evaluate these students.”

However, students were never notified.

“We misunderstood who would communicate with students,” Self said. “It was good bureaucratic intentions gone awry.”

Ovalle decided to speak up about her feelings in a letter to The Northern Star. Ovalle wrote, “I don’t deserve to be segregated because of my nationality or because of the language I speak! If what NIU’s English department did isn’t segregation, then what is?”

After the letter appeared, the English department apologized to students.

However, other students said the apology didn’t help. “The apology came late. If they felt they needed to apologize, they should have done it sooner,” said NIU student Juan Juarez.

“The only reason he (Self) was apologizing was because Maria Elina wrote the letter. They were reminded of the mistake,” he said.

Juarez had attended an English class for three days before he was notified of the change in his schedule. “I figured we would get placed based on our ACT scores, not our nationality. Just because I am Latino, they automatically assume I need help,” Juarez said.

Self said although the department’s intention was not to segregate students, he understands it doesn’t change the feeling of discrimination students felt.

The curriculum was changed when the department realized students didn’t need ESL. “We reshaped the focus. We don’t have to focus on grammar. We put the emphasis on writing,” Self said.

However, Ovalle said the department had the responsibility to check records to determine students’ needs. “They have the responsibility to check things out. If they would have seen my records, they would have known I didn’t need ESL. It’s really ignorant of them,” she said.

George Gutierrez, director of the University Resources for Latinos, said plans to identify students that need ESL will continue next semester.

“We will be very careful to determine their needs. I suggested to look at the high school background. You can see the difference in the transcript,” he said.

“They (the English department) admitted their mistake. There shouldn’t be an issue.”