Nicholas Frazier | Mercury Staff
The Office of Global Engagement will be hosting three events for Hispanic Heritage Month: “Nuestra Cultura, Nuestro Orgullo: Celebrating Latines Excellence” on Sept. 16 in Eugene McDermott Library, “Hispanic Culture and Traditions” on Sept. 27 in SU 2.905 and “El Baile” on Oct. 10 at the SSA’s gaming wall lounge, helping Hispanic students feel more appreciated at UTD.
13.5% of the UTD student body identifies as Hispanic as of spring 2024, according to UTD’s student demographic trends. UTD is in the process of becoming a Hispanic Serving Institution, which requires a minimum of 25% of the students to identify as Hispanic. Director of Global Engagement Leticia Zamarripa said the university has the privilege of hosting at least 100 different cultures enriching the UTD environment, including its Hispanic community.
“We have all these students born in the United States that still identify with their heritage,” Zamarripa said. “As a university and as a department, we are interested in students feeling acknowledged in terms of their culture.”
The Office of Global Engagement said that even though their events focus on a fraction of the cultures on campus, every student deserves a chance to celebrate their heritage.
“It is important to acknowledge any culture that is present at the university, regardless if it’s 20 students or 4,000 students,” Zamarripa said. “It is a learning opportunity for the rest of the community to learn, and more than anything else, to be sensitive about specific traditions and specific values of that culture. That allows us to have a well-rounded campus atmosphere in which everyone is appreciated.”
The Office of Global Engagement rallied support from Hispanic-led organizations on campus to help plan for Hispanic Heritage Month with the help of organizations like the League of United Latin American Citizens. This partnership allowed Hispanic students to voice what they wanted to see reflected from their culture within on-campus celebrations. Helen Martinez, president of LULAC, said that asking the Latino student body on campus of the events they’d like to celebrate would help the community feel better represented at UTD.
“I think students in general want to see things that they would see within their own family and their own countries,” Martinez said. “We have a lot within our own culture that we really enjoy and I feel like a lot of that is not really represented when we have events. There are holidays that we as a campus could celebrate because we could all get together and do something for that specific holiday. I think even if we just had that one holiday to do everything in a traditional way … students would feel a lot more appreciated and heard on campus.”
Students within Hispanic-led organizations said that even though UTD has put more effort into representing Hispanic students through events, they feel the university could be doing more to attract and build a community of Hispanic students.
“I’ve seen over the years that they keep adding stuff, but I feel like they could still implement more,” Adriana Paez, president of Association of Latino Professionals for America, said. “There are a lot of Latinos in the Dallas area, and they don’t know how to find each other. I felt like UTD didn’t cater to them as much when I got here.”
Some students said they believe UTD should increase advertisement and scholarship money to Hispanic students. If UTD becomes a Hispanic Serving Institution, the school is eligible for more grants such as Title V Part A, Developing Hispanic Serving Institutions; Part B, Promoting Postbaccalaureate Opportunities for Hispanic Americans Program; and Title III Part F, Hispanic-Serving Institutions – Science, Technology, Engineering, or Mathematics and Articulation Programs, according to the U.S. Department of Education.
“Scholarships are very limited,” Martinez said. “Like myself and other students on campus, there are certain scholarships that they don’t qualify for. If they had more scholarships, that would help them out a lot in pursuing their education.”
Hispanic-led organization leaders said they are happy with how this year’s Hispanic Heritage Month’s events are being executed, especially with the Office of Intercultural Affairs reaching out to them for help planning.
“I don’t know how many orgs they tried to contact, but the fact that they did contact our org and ask, ‘Are you planning anything for Hispanic Heritage Month?’ just proves to me that they do want to work with us,” Martinez said. “They do want to hear our voice. So, I’m really excited about Hispanic Heritage Month this this year. I hope that they promote [the events] to an extent where all students can learn about and celebrate with us.”