Group hosts Latino

Topics included education, integration and immigration.

By Andrew Denney

Published April 8, 2008

A three-day annual event created to offer educational sessions on the growing number of Latino immigrants in Missouri and in the U.S. began Monday.

In its seventh annual conference, Cambio de Colores, hosted by the Cambio Center, will have seminars focusing on the various social effects of Latino immigration such as education, integration, immigration law enforcement, civil rights and economic issues.

Cambio Center Director Domingo Martinez said this year’s event has drawn more representation from UM system faculty and administration, which he said he sees as an improvement.

“This conference deals with community change,” Martinez said. “We see ourselves as helping this community with knowledge.”

UM system President Gary Forsee and MU Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Cathy Scroggs spoke at the beginning of the event.

Forsee said he supported efforts to increase diversity at the university.

“Our position as Missouri’s land grant institution is to be sure that we provide affordable, accessible education to all students,” Forsee said.

Forsee said nearly 2 percent of the UM system population are Latino students.

He said the Missouri Civil Right Initiative — a ballot initiative that would eliminate affirmative action programs in public higher education institutions — would have an “adverse impact” on the quality of education in Missouri schools.

“Diversity is an essential component to public higher education,” Forsee said. “It’s this diversity in the classroom that enhances and enriches the student’s learning experience.”

Scroggs said the university supports the conference because it expands student interest in diversity projects.

“The rapid increase of the Latino population in this state has meant that Missouri is changing,” Scroggs said. “That change is very critical.”

Columbia Mayor Darwin Hindman gave an address at the beginning at the conference, in which he discussed the diversity of the city and the various efforts by civic leaders to increase awareness for diversity.

“I very much appreciate the value of diversity in this community,” Hindman said. “That’s one of the things that sets Columbia apart.”

Students and representatives of various businesses were in attendance for the event, which is being held at Stoney Creek Inn in Columbia.

Several presenters from MU and the UM system will provide lectures for the conference.

MU student Marcia Thrasher said she was interested in attending the event.

She said she plans to be a hospital social worker and said the ability to communicate with various types of people would help her career.

“A lot of people are not educated on the different laws and information that is out there,” Thrasher said. “I’m glad that they are having this because we need to know more about it.”

Tom Keohan, a business development specialist for MU Extension, said because of Missouri’s increasing Latino population, the knowledge offered at the conference is “imperative."

“There has to be someone to spread the word and do it intelligently, without bias,” Keohan said.