May 1, 1996 Contact: Francine Tyler (408) 459-2495; ftyler@ua.ucsc.edu

NEW BROCHURE INTRODUCES UC SANTA CRUZ TO SPANISH-SPEAKING PARENTS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SANTA CRUZ, CA--UCSC es reconocida a nivel nacional por el interes que pone en la educacion de los estudiantes de bachillerato.

If you couldn't understand the preceding sentence, you can appreciate what many Spanish-speaking parents feel when their college-bound children bring home admissions brochures in English.

"Sometimes parents end up feeling kind of left out of what's going on," says Veronica Calderon, a University of California, Santa Cruz, sophomore who brought a campus brochure home to her parents in 1994.

"I told my parents what it was about and what the school offered," says Calderon. "But sometimes when you are translating from English to Spanish you lose the meaning of the words."

UCSC's Office of Admissions is breaking down the communications barrier with its first Spanish-language admissions brochure, ¡Educate! Finished last month, ¡Educate! is being distributed through Office of Admissions outreach efforts, campus events, and college fairs, said University Registrar Cecilia Rodriguez. The Office of Admissions has also set up a new Spanish- language informational hotline, listed on the brochure's back cover.

Many Latino parents in California speak only Spanish and have little personal experience of the college admissions process. Answering these parents' questions and making them feel welcome can go a long way toward encouraging their children to attend a UC school.

"For many of the students whose families we are trying to reach, their families have little or no education," says Rodriguez. "They are very proud of their children for reaching the spot they're at now, but may feel embarrassed to ask questions themselves. We hope this brochure says, 'we understand; here are some answers in your language; we're here to help.'"

The new brochure's title means "educate yourself," says Rodriguez. It contains information about the campus environment, its student body, living arrangements, the cost of attending UCSC, and financial aid.

¡Educate! responds in part to a recommendation made by the Latino Eligibility Task Force, a group of UC administrators and faculty members brought together by the university's Office of the President to study the causes of low Latino-eligibility rates and propose solutions to the problem. In its March 1993 report, the task force recommended that UC campuses provide parents of Latino students with information in both English and Spanish. It also suggested multimedia campaigns, public service announcements, and telephone hotlines as ways to improve communications with Latino parents and students.

"In many cases, especially for undergraduate students, the parents represent the university's access to the student," says admissions counselor Pablo Reguerin, who helped produce ¡Educate! "We need to value communication with the parents as well as with the students."

People who wish to speak to a campus representative in Spanish are encouraged to call the new Spanish-language hotline at (408) 459-2594.

By the way, the sentence in Spanish was taken from the new brochure. It translates as: "UCSC is recognized at a national level for the importance it places on the education of undergraduates."

This release is also available on the World Wide Web at UCSC's "Services for Journalists" site (http://www.ucsc.edu/news/journalist.html).

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