Unfilled position leaves student org concerned

Several student organizations on campus have been affected by the recent departure of Fatima Pervaiz, the former program coordinator for the Office of Excellence and Multicultural Student Services.

Pervaiz’s former duties included advising students who visited the OEMSS, according to Merida Allen, associate director of OEMSS, Pervaiz also chaired several committees with some of the programming from the OEMSS office, and ran a diversity training for students and staff to help them better understand what it means to operate within inclusive environments, to respect others and to affirm each other.

One group that Pervaiz was highly involved with was the Latino Student Union.

She worked closely with LSU and was in charge of the Hispanic Heritage Month committee, which helped connect the community and faculty to students within the organization.

“Fatima’s role with LSU was a big one for many of us students and I am a little concerned that she is gone,” said Jacob Torres, a fourth-year majoring in communication and former president of LSU. “She was all for helping our organization and doing whatever in order to see us succeed.”

According to Torres, Pervaiz’s former position as program coordinator still remains unfilled, which has caused some concerns amongst students.

“Fatima, to me, was our last connection to the university, our last big advocate. The program needs guidance from a professional staff member that can revitalize them to what they once were,” Torres said.

According to OEMSS, Pervaiz’s former duties have been divvied up amongst the staff at OEMSS.

Allen said that the OEMSS office has stepped in and “assumed her leadership roles [Fatima] and advisory capacity to those students.”

“Our entire staff has absorbed all of the duties of hers,” Allen said, “We have sort of assumed more work in addition to our currents jobs and responsibilities.”

However, according to the LSU not all of Pervaiz’s former responsibilities are being taken on by other staff members.

“We are barely hanging on and that is in appreciation to the OEMSS office as they do the best they can with the resources that they have in order to fulfill our needs,” Torres said. “This problem is beyond the heads of the staff in OEMSS and is an administration problem.”

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Hispanic/Latinos have become the largest minority group in the United States with 16.4 percent. The Census Bureau also predicts that by 2042, 1 in 3 Americans will be Latino.

However, the percent of Hispanic/Latino students at UT has steadily been declining.

According to UT, only about 3-5 percent of students enrolled at UT are of Hispanic/Latino descent on average.

Torres said that that he believes that the number of Latino students enrolled at the university is dwindling due to the lack of programs that the university offers for Latino students.

“Other universities have offices and resources that we once had,” Torres said. “The staff member that we had that connected us has left, but the real question is, will she be replaced? We are in need of some change here at the university.”