Alumni director pens book on campus diversity

Nicholas Valenzuela Arizona Daily Wildcat Jay Rochlin, associate director of the UA Alumni office, published his book, Race and Class on Campus, last year. His book deals with minority students who have succeeded at University of Arizona.

His book, Race and Class on Campus, was published last year by the University of Arizona Press and deals with the history of race relations at the UA.

What began as a doctoral dissertation spiraled into the book "so that people, especially younger people, could get a feel for experiences (minority) people have had at the UA."

The book features the stories of 29 Mexican American and 16 African American men and women who "made it" at the university since 1925, he said. The story is framed around a fictional Mexican American student deciding whether to attend college.

Rochlin said the UA's minority situation today, though improved from years past, still needs work.

"What's more important than to decrease racism is to help minority people succeed," he said. "What we need more of than recruitment is support."

University statistics show that in Fall 1997, 13 percent of all UA students were Hispanic and 2.4 percent were African American. Rochlin said that the success of these students largely depends on academic and financial support. He said he believes certain scholarship programs, such as the Hispanic Alumni Association, are a large factor in determining minority success at the university.

"For those people who come from poorer backgrounds, it (college) is a sense of being in a different world," he said.

In fact, this "different world" may lower graduation rates among minority students. UA statistics show that 9 percent of Hispanic students and 13 percent of African American students who started school in 1992 earned a degree within four years, compared with 23 percent of white students during that same period.

Rochlin's book suggests that racism and isolation are deterrents to minority success.

John Huerta, director of development for minority programs, believes it would be unfair to call the UA racist, but "in any large institution, you are going to have institutional traits, one of which is racism."

Rochlin's book suggests that cultural centers - instituted to help minority students -may perpetuate feelings of "isolation" and therefore hinder minority success at the university.

"Cohesion is important," he said. "It's impossible for any external authority to force people to like each other."

Huerta said that inadequate high school and elementary education may be a reason for lower success rates among Hispanic students.

"The most successful students are from outlying communities - Yuma, as an example - due to better quality of education," he said. "Urban students have a much more difficult time."

Huerta said Rochlin's findings concerning Mexican American and African American students may not apply to some minorities, such as American Indians and Asian Americans.

For example, Asian Americans are often successful at the university level, he said.

Erin Mahoney can be reached via e-mail at Erin.Mahoney@wildcat.arizona.edu.