ILACHE
Testimony: Elizabeth Ortiz
Illinois Latino
Caucus and the Illinois Latino Family Commission
April 9, 2014
Good morning:
It is an honor to
address the members of the Latino Caucus and the Latino Family Commission. My name is Elizabeth Ortiz, and I reside in
Chicago, Illinois. I am an educator, an
advocate, and a concerned citizen of the State of Illinois. I currently serve as the Vice President for
Diversity and Equity at DePaul University, the President Emeritus of the
Illinois Latino Council on Higher Education, and as the current chair of the Diversifying
Higher Education Faculty in Illinois (DFI).
As a first generation
Latina college student, I know first-hand the difficulty in attending
college. If it were not for the fact
that I worked for a state university, I would not have been able to attend
graduate school. Working at NIU, I was
able to work during the day and complete my doctorate degree in the evening. Unfortunately, not every student is as
fortunate as me or has had the same opportunities and I speak on behalf of all
those who do not.
Latino students are
indeed an important part of Illinois future.
Future higher education cohorts will increasingly come from the Latino
population and Higher Education will increasingly be affected by and dependent
on Latinos in the coming decades. 24% of
all students in K-12 schools in Illinois are Latino and Latino students make up
43% of Chicago public schools. This is
only projected to increase as Latinos are a young population with higher birth
rates.
Today, I ask you to support
the Governor’s proposed 2015 budget increase of $50 million to the Monetary
Award Program or MAP. MAP provides
important dollars to Illinois neediest students. This increase
would allow 21,000 more students across the state to receive MAP grants and will
help Illinois achieve its education goals as stated in the IBHE Illinois Public
Agenda. MAP currently makes a
difference in college attendance for more than 140,000 students across the
state. MAP serves low income students,
and approximately 58% of MAP recipients are considered to have no resources
available to pay for college. MAP works,
however it has been woefully underfunded for many years. As stated in the 2012
Task Force report on Senate Joint resolution 69: “Ten years ago, MAP had
sufficient funds to offer awards to all eligible students. Today, about half the applications received
are suspended due to lack of funding (2012).”
This lack of funding support for MAP hurts Illinois neediest students
and in the long run hurts the economic development of the State.
I do not have to tell
you that it is a challenge for Latino students to attend college, not because
they do not possess the drive or desire to enroll in a college or university but
because chief among the many factors that hinder Latino college attendance is
that the cost is outside their reach. In
addition, Latino first generation college students and their parents are
learning the processes or nuances of financial aid, advising, and college
success and quite frankly, their family resources simply fall way short of the
cost of tuition and fees. MAP and funding
programs and initiatives that ensure successful college transition to support
Latino students is desperately needed at Illinois universities and colleges.
Second, I ask that you
protect DFI from any further budget cuts.
DFI is a pipeline to the doctorate degree and its goal is to diversify higher
education faculty in Illinois. DFI currently
serves as a pipeline program for 108 current scholars of color and we have
placed 162 faculty in Illinois colleges and universities since 2009. Also, since
2009, we have funded 640 DFI Fellows with a 76% (487) graduation rate.
Latino faculty represent
a mere 3.7% of all college faculty and African Americans represent 6%. As educators and leaders we also know that the
demographics of this state are going to continue to be diverse. The DFI program prepares culturally competent
teachers who represent, understand, and can serve as role models for Illinois
diverse students. When I first served on the DFI board our funding was
approximately $ 2.9 million. Today it is $1.49 million, almost half of the
original budget. This program’s mission and goals are too vitally important to
the State and its students and cannot sustain any more budget cuts. I urge you to safeguard the DFI budget and to
work toward restoring the funds that have been eroded over the last few budget
cycles.
The students of this State
are our future leaders and innovators.
It will be their talent that drives Illinois economic development. Not investing in MAP and DFI will impact the
lives of Illinois students and hinder not only their future but also the lives
of their children. The greatest
predictor of college success is if your parents obtained a college education and
their socioeconomic status. Not investing in MAP and cutting DFI will adversely
impact these students, their future wage earnings, and will negatively impact
future generations of students. This ripple effect will hurt Illinois and its
citizens for many years to come.
I believe that college
affordability is a pressing equity issue.
As the State of Illinois moves forward with a performance based funding model,
I ask that we hold universities and colleges responsible for greater transparency in cost,
retention, and graduation rates of all students, especially for diverse
students. It is my sincere hope that our
Latino and diverse students achieve success and not be the unwilling scapegoats
of performance based funding by raising admission requirements and the slashing
of retention programs that support these students.
Finally, as we move forward with budget negotiations, I
respectfully request that we reinforce and increase institutional and
budgetary support for proven success programs such as LARES at University
of Illinois at Chicago, and Proyecto Pa’Lante, at Northeastern Illinois
University. These model programs were designed
to recruit and assist in the graduation of Latinos students. Given the Latino population increase in the
State of Illinois, the importance of adequately funding these historic programs
is needed more than ever.
I
respectfully urge the members of the Latino Caucus and
the Latino Family Commission that, as they make the tough
budgetary decisions that they do not do so by leveraging our students’ future
and work to safeguard funding to MAP, DFI, and the programs that support Latino
and diverse student success. Now is the
time to invest in Illinois’ future by investing in Higher Education and the
students that come to our doors.
In
closing, I thank you for allowing me to address you today. I appreciate your
leadership and all that you do in the governance of our state and on behalf of ILACHE, DFI, and the students we serve.
