Only two University of California campuses, including UCLA, have designated staff and programs specifically for undocumented students, causing some in the undocumented community to worry.
UC President Janet Napolitano recently promised to spend $5 million on resources for the approximately 900 undocumented students in the UC system. The announcement may cause some UC campuses to give more specific attention to that population of students.
The $5 million will be allocated toward advisers, scholarships, service centers and other resources for undocumented students throughout the UC system, Napolitano said in a speech last month. Currently, only UC Berkeley and UCLA have designated professional staff specifically for undocumented student support, but many campuses have staff who are trained to be knowledgeable of resources such as scholarships for undocumented students.
UCLA, which enrolls one of the largest undocumented student populations out of all the UC campuses, has one professional staff member at the Bruin Resource Center designated specifically to serve undocumented students.
UCLA currently enrolls more than 450 undocumented students, a 65 percent increase from last year, according to Angela Chen, UCLA’s undocumented student programs coordinator.
Because of the California DREAM Act, which was signed into effect in2011by Gov. Jerry Brown, undocumented student enrollment has recently increased at the UC, according to UC spokeswoman Dianne Klein.
Chen advises students, organizes workshops on the undocumented student experience and provides analysis of legislation that affects undocumented students, among other duties.
Chen said it would be better if UC campuses had more staff to support undocumented students because these students need to know about the resources available to them and have somewhere they know they can go to.
Chen also said the $5 million would be helpful in increasing financial resources for undocumented students. Undocumented students qualify for state scholarships and in-state resident tuition because of the DREAM Act, but cannot qualify for any federal aid, including student loans, Pell grants and work-study.
Undocumented students also often have difficulty qualifying for private scholarships, many of which require the applicant to have a resident status, according to a UC report.
Belinda Aguierre, an undocumented student at UCLA, said she thinks undocumented students deserve to have more resources because their population is growing in the UC.
If she had more financial aid, Aguirre, a fourth-year Chicana/o studies student, said her family would be able to pay for things besides her apartment rent and not have so much debt.
“(More resources) would give students more (of) a peace of mind, and it would just help families out as well,” she said.
Francisco Lopez, a fourth-year Chicana/o studies student, first enrolled at UCLA seven years ago.
Lopez said he thinks current financial and advising resources available for undocumented students are insufficient because undocumented students often come from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. Because they are undocumented, they also often have difficulty finding employment.
A UCLA grant for undocumented students pays Lopez’s tuition, but the grant doesn’t cover his housing or books. He said he pays for the rest with his job – he works 35 hours a week as an analyst at the UCLA Health System – but he knows other students who don’t have a job to cover these extra costs.
Lopez also said it is difficult for undocumented students to know about what resources are available to them.
In terms of resources for undocumented students, however, UCLA students have it better than most other UC campuses, said Seth Ronquillo, fourth-year film and linguistics student and co-chair of IDEAS, UCLA’s undocumented student group.
“Other undocumented students throughout the UC, they don’t have what we have here at UCLA,” Ronquillo said. “We have a lot of support coming from these campus administrators and campus programs.”
Ronquillo, a former Daily Bruin columnist, attributed these UCLA resources to the on-campus activist work of earlier generations of undocumented students.
Ronquillo also said it would be beneficial to have more UC staff members who are trained to know what undocumented students experience and how to support them.
Well done, Ms. Napolitano.
Looking at the Daily Bruin poll on the sidebar, however, I am puzzled as to why there are currently 104 people who think “There are other ways this money could have been better spent.” What other ways, may I ask? Undocumented students face extra challenges that do not burden the typical UCLA student; I can see nothing but positive benefits that would stem from $5m in resources for undocumented Bruins.
Draco Chu
UCLA ’10 & M.Ed. ’11