20 UCLA DAILY BRUIN Thursday, February 8, 1968

"UMAS leaders call grant timely, small

Mexican-American student leaders have mixed feelings toward a $200,000 grant for Mexican-American students here.

The grant was presented by the Ford Foundation, which specified that the money be use to aid Mexican-American students attending or planning to attend this campus.

Al Juarez, former executive director of the statewide United Mexican-American Students (UMAS) organization and now president of the UMAS chapter here, typified the student reaction, saying, "It's about time!"

"It's beautiful that they are going to get 30 more chicanos (Mexican-American) into this institution of 'higher learning,'" Monti Esparsa, a member of UMAS commented, "but the effect if will have on the community as a whole is nil."

Esparsa said that thousands of students are being "pushed out" of the high schools.

"The ones that are graduating are not receiving the proper preparation to compete in the system; of those that can compete, 30 won't have any effect," he said.

The biggest slice of the grant - $120,000- will go to the Education Opportunities Program (EOP) to aid Mexican-American students here over the next three years, Juvenal Gonzales, asst. director of EOP, said.

Financial help through scholarships or jobs and educational help such as tutoring and counseling will be provided by these funds, he said

"The remaining $80,000 will be used to recruit high school students into the Upward Bound Project, a special program which helps high school students from 'poverty pockets' enter UCLA," Carmen Feliz, assistant director of the project, said. Thirty students will be added to the. project

Gonzales said that Kenneth Washington, director of EOP, originally requested a quarter of a million dollars from the Ford Foundation. Although EOP received $50,000 less than its request, Gonzales is confident that more money can be obtained should it run out before the three-year period expires.