Political science junior Saleen Gonzalez-Apodaca came to LSU from Dallas, Texas. As a Mexican-American, Gonzalez-Apodaca wanted to attend a Hispanic Serving Institute, but ultimately chose LSU for financial reasons. 

Within the first year of being at LSU, Gonzalez-Apodaca had not found her community and was ready to transfer out.

“Attending a [predominantly white institution] is uncomfortable. It gets uncomfortable until you start to meet your family, and people that were raised like you and are from places that you’re from,” Gonzalez-Apodaca said.

Despite the university’s resources, many minority students struggle to find community and comfort on LSU’s campus.

At the end of her freshman year, Gonzalez-Apodaca searched “Latino” on TigerLink, LSU’s platform for connecting students to campus organizations. She came across Sigma Lambda Gamma, a Latina-founded sorority and the only multicultural sorority at LSU. 

Gonzalez-Apodaca filled out an interest form and decided to pledge. It was the first time she had met any Hispanic people at LSU.

“[Sigma Lambda Gamma] literally changed my mind from wanting to be at Texas A&M or UT Austin to wanting to stay here,” Gonzalez-Apodaca said. “I saw the potential this had to impact the community here at LSU and to create a new space and a sisterhood that was for life and not just for four years.”

Gonzalez-Apodaca now serves as the President of Sigma Lambda Gamma and has also found a community through the Latin American Student Organization. She also frequently utilizes the Latinx Center inside the Student Union.

“The Latinx Center is literally my home… I was surprised LSU would even have a space for us here,” she said.

While Gonzalez-Apodaca thinks it’s important for LSU to have a space for minorities like the Latinx Center, she believes a bigger space is needed for the growing community on campus.

“If you want to flaunt that you have so many minorities on campus, give them the space. Show that you care,” Gonzalez-Apodaca said.

While Gonzalez-Apodaca eventually found her community at LSU, she doesn’t recommend other minorities come to LSU if they want to be surrounded by other students of color.

“I wanted to transfer the second I got here,” Gonzalez-Apodaca said. “If you want a community like UMiami, like universities in Texas or California, don’t come here.”

Mechanical engineering sophomore Karla Iraheta also agrees that minorities need a bigger space on campus. 

Iraheta is from Los Angeles and has Salvadoran heritage. Before coming to LSU, she was not used to such a white environment and found herself missing the diverse community in Los Angeles. 

Iraheta previously lived with a white roommate and a roommate of color. While living together, the white roommate often expressed feeling uncomfortable with Iraheta sharing her culture, even if it was through music or food.

Iraheta is also a part of Sigma Lambda Gamma, and she immediately felt at home with them.

“I felt really included… Once we met in person it was an instant connection. I can truly call them my hermanas,” Iraheta said.

Alex Torres serves as the assistant director for Latinx Affairs at LSU and is an alumna of the school. She works inside the Office of Multicultural Affairs, which she describes as the “student-facing” side of the Office of Diversity and Inclusion.

According to Torres, the Office of Multicultural Affairs offers mentoring, cultural programming and additional resources to students of color. They also help students connect to multicultural organizations on campus and provide a space for the students to visit and feel a sense of community.

Torres believes that LSU needs a space like the Office of Multicultural Affairs for minority students to feel seen and listened to, noting that one of the most common reasons students visit her office is anxiety surrounding financial aid and mental health.

“[The Office of Multicultural Affairs] is important because of visibility and advocacy. Students need to be able to build a relationship with a department that they feel like they can trust and have at least staff members that might share their identity,” Torres said.

There are multiple events planned for minorities throughout the school year, including cultural nights and celebrations for different heritage months. Still, Torres believes there’s room for improvement.

“I think there’s always room to do more… Not only for students to feel included, but for students to really learn how to be in solidarity with one another,” Torres said.

Lauren Denton works with Torres inside the Office of Multicultural Affairs and serves as the assistant director for Inclusive Programming and Mentoring at LSU.

Denton hopes to connect with the Native American and Asian American students on campus, who she has found don’t always have anyone to turn to. She also expressed wanting to hold more community events, as she has noticed embracing culture helps with retention rates among minorities.

“The goal is to have cultural-based events…to increase the sense of belonging and community. Hopefully that helps [students’] experience towards graduation,” Denton said.

She also said that the workforce is becoming more diverse, so it’s important for schools like LSU to teach their students how to be comfortable with people of different backgrounds.

Denton encourages students of color to visit the Office of Multicultural Affairs if they ever have a problem or just want to see people who can relate to their experiences as a minority.

“There’s more barriers for underrepresented students, so we’re here to help them navigate and listen and advocate,” Denton said. “I want this to be a place they feel comfortable coming.” 

Jane Cassidy is the current interim vice president of Inclusion, Civil Rights and Title IX at LSU. She oversees different offices on campus, including the Office of Multicultural Affairs.

“[The Office of Multicultural Affairs] has programming that goes on all year round for students,” Cassidy said. “How do we bring people together who are of like heritage to celebrate things and how do we teach others what those celebrations are?”

Cassidy says that LSU has a lot to offer minority students, including special robing ceremonies for students from historically underrepresented groups, mentoring and cultural centers. She says her office is working on creating more space for the cultural centers to meet the needs of the community.

While LSU does offer support to students, Cassidy said she realizes that the school could be doing more to make students of color aware that these resources are available to them.

“When you’re an incoming freshman, this place is so big…We need to be more engaged during Welcome Week with freshmen, to make sure that they know where to go if they are people of color who want to seek out people who have the same heritage as them,” Cassidy said.

Cassidy also said that another way minority students can connect with resources on campus is searching the Office of Diversity and Inclusion online to learn more about cultural events and people to connect with.

“Our mission is to serve all people from Louisiana. We have learned a lot over the recent past about how to do things better. We need an Office of Diversity and Inclusion to have somebody whose eyes are focused on [diversity] all the time,” Cassidy said. “We want to serve the people of color on campus. We want to make sure everyone realizes they’re welcome here.”