{"id":5168,"date":"2023-05-26T09:00:23","date_gmt":"2023-05-26T13:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/?p=5168"},"modified":"2023-05-17T16:22:08","modified_gmt":"2023-05-17T20:22:08","slug":"lack-of-communication-makes-community-building-difficult-for-latine-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/2023\/05\/lack-of-communication-makes-community-building-difficult-for-latine-students\/","title":{"rendered":"Lack of Communication Makes Community Building Difficult For Latine Students"},"content":{"rendered":"
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LMSA+ VIce President Stevens Patino leads a group of students in learning basic salsa steps. Patino himself finding looking for clubs that represented his Latine identity at Hunter. “I think what we have here is a hidden gem.”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Salsa music can be heard blaring from room TH 208\/209 as students are greeted with blue streamers and a banner that reads \u201cLatino Medical Student Association\u201d just above the entrance. They\u2019re gathered here for LMSA+\u2019s \u201cSalsa Night\u201d where the club\u2019s vice president, Stevens Patino, is teaching them salsa. Most of the students attending are of Latine descent, from places like Puerto Rico, Mexico, Brazil, Peru, and the Dominican Republic just to name a few. They can be seen dancing with each other and sharing other traditional dances as the night goes on.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Like other CUNY schools, Hunter is known to attract a diverse student body from across New York City and beyond. According to <\/span>Data USA<\/span><\/a>, about 28.6 percent of Hunter students are of Hispanic\/Latine descent as of 2020. They edge out their white peers by 0.1 percent, who make up 28.5 percent of the student population. However, the amount of Hispanic\/Latine student organizations are not reflective of these statistics. LMSA+, for instance, is one of only three Hispanic\/Latine-centered clubs listed on Hunter\u2019s <\/span>website<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve looked for other Latino clubs and I [had] difficulty finding them,\u201d said Patino. \u201cI think what we have here is a hidden gem.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Students like Patino expressed having difficulty forming connections with fellow Latine students. A major factor of this is Hunter\u2019s reputation as a commuter school, where many students mainly come to campus for classes and then leave once they\u2019re done. This has led to a lack of awareness of events or clubs that center their heritage. Orquidea Recendez, a second-year transfer student from California, said that the only Hispanic\/Latine event she\u2019s attended was for D\u00eda de los Muertos last fall. She added that if she hadn\u2019t been taking Spanish, then she wouldn\u2019t have known about it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like with my busy schedule I don\u2019t really spend much time in school unless I really need to,\u201d said Recendez.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Patino dancing with a fellow student. Students mingled with and taught each other different dances as the night went on.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Monica Schinaider, a Spanish professor from the Romance Language Department, found that there\u2019s a need for more community-building among Latine students. She coordinated the event \u201cSpanish as Language Engagement Day” to engage with students and to inform them on what the department offers them. It was also a cultural celebration where students expressed themselves through poems, music, presentations, and more. Schinaider invited eight sections of heritage learner classes to attend.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Schinaider also noted the importance of networking and how a lack of engagement can be detrimental to that. Part of the issue is lack of communication between Hunter and the student body, which was exacerbated after classes went online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Schinaider said that her department does its best to reach out to students and is active in terms of events. They\u2019re also trying to extend their outreach to students who aren\u2019t Spanish majors or minors, as they could benefit from knowing about their services as well.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe need more communication among the groups of the Latinos and the Spanish community,\u201d said Schinaider. \u201cI know that there are things going on, but we do not interact and we do not communicate [with] each other.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Hunter USG\u2019s Cultural Affairs Commissioner Asia Akperov also cited lack of communication as a wider issue at the school that prevents students from learning about and attending these events. Akperov, whose role is to help charter and manage clubs, said that USG has tried to reach students through social media and email but not everyone checks them. She does know that there is a demand for Hispanic\/Latine-centered activities based on students\u2019 responses and prior success, such as their Hispanic Heritage Month event last October.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Students watch performances in the Chanin Screening Room on “Spanish as Language Engagement Day.” The event was meant to engage with students, especially those of Hispanic\/Latine descent. “We need more communication among the groups of the Latinos and the Spanish community,” said Professor Monica Schinaider.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Akperov also pointed out that students often need an incentive to attend events considering the commuter aspect of Hunter. She thinks in this sense USG needs to do a better job advertising them and rallying the students in. Recently, they’ve been brainstorming on ways to engage with students, such as posting flyers with QR codes or emailing professors to relay event details to their students.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Akperov said that her and the rest of USG are always open to hearing from clubs and students on how they can improve on \u201ccentering Hispanic voices and other marginalized communities\u201d throughout the whole year, not just for one event.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just so important for students to come together, specifically at events where there\u2019s food, there\u2019s music, and there\u2019s peers,\u201d said Akperov. \u201cThat is where community building happens, and oftentimes doesn\u2019t happen in classrooms.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Salsa music can be heard blaring from room TH 208\/209 as students are greeted with blue streamers and a banner that reads \u201cLatino Medical Student Association\u201d just above the entrance. They\u2019re gathered here for LMSA+\u2019s \u201cSalsa Night\u201d where the club\u2019s vice president, Stevens Patino, is teaching them salsa. Most of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":122,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/122"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5168"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5168\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5179,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5168\/revisions\/5179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}