Developing Latina/o racial identity on campus.(University of Vermont's Malika Carter proposes an educational policy for Latin Americans)

Population rates for Latina/os in the United States are exploding. Since the average age of Latina/os in the United States is under 18, soon they'll be entering college in great numbers.

Higher education is unprepared to address the needs of Latina/o students in areas of racial and ethnic development and identity formation, warned Malika Carter, a graduate assistant in the academic support program at the University of Vermont. She presented her findings at the NASPA conference in Tampa in March.

Carter became interested in studying Latina/o development in the academy during her first year as a higher education and student affairs administration graduate student. While learning identity development theories, she studied models for black, white and even lesbian, gay and transgendered identity development--but there were no models and very little research on the largest minority group in the United States.

Carter decided to conduct research. She started by reviewing the literature, surveys, government reports and data of the field, although there wasn't much data, and examined interviews obtained through a study she performed.

Terminology

The first stages of her research began to show the complexities of Latina/o identity that stem from the terminology used in the United States and the lack of understanding of the proper meaning of certain words. Race and ethnicity, for example, are often assumed to mean the same thing, but they actually have separate definitions. The words Latina and Latino are often confused with the word "Hispanic," a frequently inaccurate word that is misunderstood and can create identity confusion.

The word Hispanic was created in 1978 by the U.S. Department of Budget and Finance to classify people from certain countries--and who spoke Spanish. Used to track financial information, it was "created with money in mind," said Carter.