MANKATO — When Murtaza Rajabali first heard about a new Latino Center coming to Minnesota State University’s Centennial Student Union, he was, to put it mildly, surprised.

As president of the university’s Student Senate, he usually hears about these things a little sooner.

“There’s a process of student consultation, and usually if they want to do something in the students’ union, they have to go through that process,” Rajabali said. “What we were told is that the CSU was going to have a Latino Center.”

Students became angry. Administrators made efforts to alleviate concerns. And thus, a campus controversy was born.

Since then, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Scott Olson went before the Centennial Student Union Board and presented the university’s vision about a Latino Center and how it came about. Now the Union Board, which oversees use of the CSU, will talk about whether it will support the idea.

And on Monday, a forum was held where MSU President Richard Davenport, Olson, Vice President for Finance and Administration Rick Straka and Vice President for Institutional Diversity Michael Fagin answered questions along with Rajabali and other student leaders.

At that forum, Davenport confirmed the creation of a Latino Center isn’t a question of “if,” but “when and where.”

The issue is a complex one and puts a focus on an ethnic group that has had a curious presence on MSU’s campus.

In Region Nine (made up of Blue Earth, Brown, Faribault, Le Sueur, Martin, Nicollet, Sibley, Waseca and Watonwan counties) as of 2008, Hispanics made up more than half of all ethnic minorities.

But at MSU, Hispanics represent just 1.4 percent of the MSU student population, a rate far behind other ethnic minorities that are much less represented in southern Minnesota. Black students currently represent 4.2 percent of students at MSU, but just 1.4 percent of the region. Asians, which make up 2.5 percent of the student body, make up 1.3 percent of the region.

Estimates for the next two decades show a dramatic increase in the number of Hispanics in Minnesota and the region. Combine that with the estimated dramatic decrease in the number of high school graduates coming in the next 10 years, and it doesn’t take a Ph.D. to tell you Hispanics are a key growth area for MSU.

And MSU wants to grow. A few years ago, the university announced a goal of growing its enrollment to about 20,000. Today it’s at 14,877.

Mexican Consulate

A deal struck with the Mexican government recently provided the impetus for MSU to get going on plans it says have been brewing for years.

Director of Chicano/Latino Affairs Guadalupe Quintero said she’s long been lobbying for a Latino Center, and she’s had statewide support.

“Two years ago, we met with Latino leaders in the state, met with Chicano-Latino Affairs Council, and they told us they always use MSU as an example,” Quintero said. “They said MSU should be the destination school for Latinos, and we have been talking about a bigger space for a long time.”

When the Mexican government began negotiating with MSU on an agreement to house its “Plaza Communitaria,” Quintero said it was the right moment to create a center.

Details remain sketchy, but the Mexican government plans to put in MSU the same type of educational center it has put in hundreds of other universities around the country. They typically provide equipment and funding for immigrants to study and test for a Mexican certificate that roughly equates to an American GED. After that they are able to more easily pursue education in the U.S.

And then it is hoped they’ll become educated enough about the U.S. and how higher education works that they’ll send their children to school at MSU.

Student opposition

Rajabali and other student leaders are happy the administration is seeking student input now, but they’re concerned about the message that’s already been sent.

“The way they handled this was very different from how they handled things in the past,” Rajabali said. “They want this done very quickly ... The president and vice president of institutional diversity really want this Latino Center.”

Rajabali’s suggestion is to give Quintero’s office better visibility, and perhaps more space, in an office that already serves students of all cultures: the Multicultural Center.

He said the student union is meant to be a place where all students are welcomed. Establishing a center for one group, he said, would apply a segregationist approach to CSU space.

Other students agree.

Student Sen. Tom Williams said the situation has been “a whole mess of confusion.” He said that, at one time, there was just as much rumor as fact being circulated, and that some of what the administration was trying to do “may have been lost in translation.”

He doesn’t think the administration tried to “sneak one by” the students, but he wonders why students weren’t involved from the beginning. He suspects they may have wanted to have everything done before they came to the students.

As for whether a center should exist in the CSU as proposed, Williams remains unsure.

“I’m kind of split on it to tell you the truth,” he said. “I’m worried that with the purpose of the student union being an all-inclusive one, if we start to section groups off, is it still that cohesive?

“I know those resources need to be there,” he said. “But I’m not sure a Latino Center is the best option for it. We have a Multicultural Affairs office and the Intercultural Center. Why create a whole new establishment when we already have two groups that deal with cultural diversity?”

Shirley Piepho, employed by MSU and an adviser to the College Republicans, said many of the students in that group have objected to space being set aside in the CSU for a Latino Center. And when asked how they can have their voices heard, Piepho, whose job is to schedule and plan for events in the CSU and the rest of campus, reminded them of something Davenport said at Monday’s forum: that a group of Latino students had written him a letter saying they wanted a center.

“I told them, ‘If you want to participate, write a letter. It seems to work,’” Piepho said. “I think there’s a misconception here. People aren’t against the center. It’s about where are you going to put it and how much is it going to cost.”