The decline in the enrollment of Hispanic graduate students has now reached crisis proportions. It is absolutely clear that unless the trend is reversed, there will be virtually no Hispanic faculty at the University by the year 2000.

The reasons for the decline are disputed. During the Committee's campus visits some non-minority faculty and administrators stated that minorities were not attending graduate school because they were in such demand in business and the professions and that those endeavors are more rewarding. Students, however, provided a different view. Graduate students often referred to the "hostile environment" of the University; they pointed out that there were virtually no Hispanic faculty in many areas and that the other faculty often assumed that Hispanic students were not capable of competing with "regular," non-minority students. Undergraduates generally expressed surprise that graduate study might be a possibility. Most believed that they and their families could not afford the cost of graduate school. They were not familiar with the nature of graduate education; they did not know that they could finance their studies with fellowships, teaching assistantships and research assistantships. In short, they had neither been identified as potential graduate students nor provided information about the opportunities for advanced study. Apparently, neither their professors nor their student services advisors discussed the possibilities of graduate study with them. Most student services staff were concerned about recruitment and retention of Hispanic students, not with the possibilities of graduate study. Indeed, most of them lack information about the nature of graduate education at the University of California. Many thought of it in terms of additional courses or possibly an M.A. or teaching credential.

Although the question of how to find good Hispanic graduate students has many answers, it seems clear that the University has not approached the problem very imaginatively. Again, as in the case of undergraduates, the problem is one of fragmentation of programs, lack of coordination, and, most of all, lack of effective faculty involvement. While Student Affairs staff are concerned with recruiting undergraduates and retaining them, Graduate Division staff are concerned with recruiting graduate students and helping them graduate. There is very little cooperation between the two. Indeed, tensions over funding were repeatedly voiced. Student Affairs staff want any programs to encourage and prepare undergraduates for graduate study to come from Graduate Division funds, while Graduate Division staff believe graduate programs are underfunded and Student Affairs programs are overfunded. In most of the discussions, faculty are absent. That is, they do not seem to have a role in the eyes of the staff.

Once recruited, Hispanic graduate students believe that they face serious problems of faculty hostility. In many cases, they consider themselves marginal in their departments. The two exceptions are those students who are fortunate in having a Hispanic faculty mentor, and those who participate in the University's Faculty Mentor Program. Hispanic students are unanimous in their belief that having a Hispanic faculty mentor is a great advantage. Similarly, those students who have participated in the Faculty Mentor Program considered their mentor different from other non-minority faculty in that he or she accepted the students as individuals and supported their work.

Finally, UC should define the recruitment of Hispanics to teaching careers as a high priority which is supported by graduate and professional fellowships in such programs. University financial support in any form is rare for graduate and professional students in these programs, and research funds are severely limited. But the recruitment of more Hispanic students to careers as teachers, and exposure of non-Hispanic students in education to a curriculum which is responsive to the demographic and cultural realities of California's K-12 population, are essential steps in beginning to address serious deficiencies in primary and secondary education in this State. While the Committee recognizes that the commitment of fellowship funds to credential or Master's programs is not a current policy of the Graduate Divisions, it is essential that special funding be made available in the case of teacher training programs.