Staff Report
During a recent jaunt to Washington, D.C. with the entire Board of Regents in tow, UNM President Louis Caldera joined state representatives in urging Congress to pass a bill that would help more Hispanic students attend graduate school.
According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, last year Hispanics accounted for less than five percent of the graduate school student body nationwide - the lowest among all minority students.
Caldera said in a news release that this trend must be stopped.
"When you look at graduate programs, there is a very significant drop-off in Hispanic participation," he said at a Capitol Hill news conference. "We need to find ways to encourage young people of all ethnicities to make the most of their God-given talents."
The proposed bill, backed by Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., and Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M., would establish grants for colleges and universities with student bodies that are at least 25 percent Hispanic.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
The money, Caldera said, would go toward expanding the school's entire post-graduate programs, hoping more students would then be persuaded to pursue master's degrees.
Wilson said in the news release that Caldera will be instrumental in convincing Congress to pass the bill because he is the leader of the largest Hispanic-serving institution in New Mexico. Others include New Mexico Tech, New Mexico State University and Highlands University.
Wilson is among 100 House members who have signed onto the bill, saying in the news release she is aware of the discrepancies among Hispanic participation in graduate programs.
"More than 33 percent of undergraduates in UNM's engineering program are Hispanic, but that number drops to less than 10 percent in the program's graduate school," she said in the news release.
Bingaman, apparently agreeing with Caldera, introduced a similar bill last month in the Senate.
That bill would provide more than $100 million to bolster graduate programs nationwide and inject money into schools' financial aid programs.
Both bills, which have found strong bipartisan support, are expected to also be considered by the Commission on Higher Education for adoption if they fail in Congress.
"One of the tickets to a dream for every kid in America is a great education," he said in the news release. "We need to make sure a ticket is available to every child."
