Yanet Rosales is far from home — 399 miles to be exact.
Rosales, a third-year Diversity Scholar with the Office of Multicultural Affairs at the University of Idaho, is from Gooding, Idaho. A proud, first-generation Mexican-American student, Rosales made the decision to leave home for a higher education at UI because of the Office of Equity and Diversity.
There are five units to the Office of Equity and Diversity — College Assistance Migrant Program, LGBTQA Office, Native American Student Center, Office of Multicultural Affairs and the Women’s Center, said Chief Diversity Officer and Executive Director of Tribal Relations, Yolanda Bisbee.
With five varying offices, the priorities stay in line as the staff is trained on cultural competency and culturally responsive education, which focuses on the inclusion of language, culture and history.
The goal for these programs? To decrease the equity gap, because from a national perspective, ethnic and diverse groups’ equity gaps are higher, leaving more students unlikely to graduate. The difference between equity and equality can sometimes be misunderstood, said Lizette Almanza, a third-year Diversity Scholar with OMA.
One of her advisors, Jesse Martinez, OMA Director, explained the difference to her in a way that is more understandable.
“Everyone has a shoe, that’s equality” Almanza said. “But we all need different sizes — things we can use for the shoe. Different people need different necessities to be successful.”
Which is where programs like the OMA and CAMP come in for these students.
For UI’s students, the retention rate from freshman to sophomore year is 81% during the 2017- 2018 school year according to UI’s new freshman retention and graduation rates.
But for students under the Office of Equity and Diversity, that rate was 92%, Bisbee said.
“And I feel like if it wasn’t for these programs, I mean, I’m wondering
if a majority of Hispanics or Latinx communities or any other community would actually graduate from this school?” Rosales said. “Because if they don’t feel safe, if they don’t feel like that connection, would they still be able to continue their education?”
It is an issue that has found its way to southern Idaho — Boise to be specific.
This past July, Boise State University’s diversity programs were challenged by 28 state legislators, encouraging new BSU President Marlene Tromp to defund programs in support of diversity, according to an article by the Idaho Statesman.
Representative Bill Goesling of District 5, which includes Latah County, was one of those 28 state legislators who signed the letter.
Goesling said he wanted to represent his constituents, who he said were very concerned with taxpayer money.
“So instead of spending money recruiting from foreign land or whatever don’t we owe those monies,” Goesling said. “And that’s what I heard from my constituent base.”
Goesling described his constituent base as having three different sides, from liberal to extremely right-leaning Republicans.
While Goesling’s voice may not be the same as some of UI’s students, he said he is happy to sit down with students and talk about issues, as he has in the past.
Nallely Gonzalez, a second-year CAMP and Diversity Scholar with OMA, attended the protest in Boise, when the controversy happened between BSU and diversity funding.
“These education systems weren’t created for people like us”Nallely Gonzalez
“These education systems weren’t created for people like us,” Gonzalez said.
According to numbers provided by UI Director of Communications, Jodi Walker, in the 2019 Fiscal Year UI spent a total of $685,488 on general education spending between the Office of Equity and Diversity and the Office of Tribal Relations and $291,257 on student fee spending.
“When you look at that total dollar and the number of students we serve its probably only about 1% of the total general ed and student fee budget,” Bisbee said.
“(CAMP and OMA) offer academic support, financial support and cultural support,” said Pepe Maciel, a second-year CAMP and Diversity Scholar with OMA. “And so, what they do is they connect us with a lot of like offices here on campus and give us like, materials we need in order to succeed.”
A large benefit for Maciel of these programs is the feeling of not being alone. As UI’s breakdown is predominantly white, having programs like this not only creates a sense of community for these students but helps educate others on being culturally aware.
The Office of Equity and Diversity strives to educate others and those within their programs on being culturally aware and using culturally responsive programming, Bisbee said.
By being inclusive of language, cultureand history, the office is able to recruit andeducate their students appropriately.
An example of how they use these three concepts is, when recruiting students, they make sure to recruit in Spanish to the students and their families.
“We know that our Latino families are very closely engaged, and that they need to be included within that recruitment initiative in order to be a part of those who are supporting their students come to school,” Bisbee said.
The reason this is important is that historically those who don’t speak English as their first language are not included and if recruiting is only available in English those parents won’t be able to part of the conversation when it comes to their children and higher education, Bisbee said.
“I owe a lot of my success to them (CAMP and OMA), because they
really pushed all of us to succeed and put ourselves out there,” Maciel said. “Especially in a university that wasn’t made for us just to like, use our privilege being here to be able to do what our parents wildest dreams are basically.”
Maciel, Almanza, Gonzalez and Rosales are all first-generation students who might not have been able to attend UI without inclusive programs like CAMP and OMA, so when programs of diversity come under scrutiny it can be life-changing for students.
Bisbee recognizes the importance of these programs and believes that others are learning that too.
“It’s not only in Idaho that these programs are important, its nationwide,” Bisbee said. “Nationally there is a growth in these programs because that’s the fastest growing population (diverse groups) nationally.”
While the programs are growing nationally, if they were to lose funding and Bisbee had to make the hard choice of where to cut, she said the only place they would really look that would hurt the program is staffing.
Bisbee said she doesn’t want to think of that now as that may not be a concern.
“Where we’re seeing that we need to be more effective is after the sophomore year,” Bisbee said.
With their limited staff, the offices use the majority of their services they offer to first-year students to help them stay engaged and then hoping that those students will be driven in their later years.
Despite the programs and different offices, Almanza said she believes UI should do more to support programs of diversity and equity.
“When we look at how many ethnically and diverse students have come and crossed that stage in order to get their degree and been part of our programs,” Bisbee said. “That speaks for itself.”
Ellen Dennis contributed to this report.
Alex Brizee can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @alex_brizee