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Torres aims to increase
minority leadership in higher education
By Carolyn
Gonzales
Vice President
of Student Affairs Dr. Eliseo Cheo Torres was recently
named chair of the Minority Undergraduate Fellows Program (MUFP)
advisory board. MUFP is a program of the National Association
of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA), the voice for student
affairs administration, policy and practice.
The purpose
of MUFP is to increase the number of ethnic-minority members or
individuals with disabilities in student affairs and higher education.
UNM is a major player in MUFP, Torres said. We
need more minorities in university administrative positions.
Eight UNM
staff will each mentor one or two students, or fellows, providing
them with a chance to see what a career in student affairs or
higher education would be like.
Torres has
personally worked with one or two fellows annually since 1997.
The fellows go with me to conferences, shadow me, attend
meetings, and generally get exposed to the field, Torres
said.
Another MUFP
initiative is the Summer Internship Program. Fellows participate
in paid internships at another institution to broaden their experience
and perspective. Twenty institutions are active in this
eight-week program. We will have two fellows coming to UNM to
work with the Summer Bridge Program, LOBOrientation and more.
We also have UNM fellows who will go to work at another campus,
he said.
Fellows are
also invited to participate in Summer Leadership Institute, to
be held this year at Duke University and next year in Hawaii.
The
advisory board will work with our peers and NASPA at other universities
to expand MUFP, said Torres.
He said that
Congress recently awarded NASPA $250,000 to enhance MUFP to allow
the program to include more fellows and mentors.
Torres said
the board will be conducting surveys of MUFPs effectiveness
as well as marketing the program and looking to high schools to
get students interested earlier.
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