Junior architecture major Alejandra Lagunas worked with other universities and officials to bring the 12th annual Latino Leadership Conference to Ball State this year, and she succeeded. The months that followed the request became some of the toughest for her.
"I haven't slept at all this week, and then every time I wake up I feel like I forgot to do something," she said. "But if I had to do this again, I would do it. If one person gets something off of this conference, it will be worth it."
Lagunas and members of the Latino Student Union have worked with the university to put together the LLC, an event that will bring more than 350 students to the L.A. Pittenger Student Center on Saturday from universities and high schools around the state.
Lagunas came to Ball State in her sophomore year as a transfer student from Ivy Tech with hopes of becoming an active member of a Latino organization. To her surprise, she saw a smaller number of Latino students than she had expected and an even smaller amount of participation.
"I met [other Latino students] at a conference, and I come from a background in Indy where I was involved in many organizations, so I thought I could come here and continue," she said. "When I went to the LSU meetings I would say, yes, there's a lot going on, but outside there was nothing."
For a university like Ball State, having 448 students with Latino background is expected, but some of the students helping to organize the conference said they don't see any motivation given to students to be proactive.
Senior social work major Tatiana Nieto said during her four years as a student at Ball State, she has not seen much of a difference in participation.
"I realize that, yes, we are a minority here on campus, but we want the university to give us more support, to encourage to do more things outside of classes," she said.
Nieto said the small amount of participation affects her generation because students do not become aware of current issues or do not care to follow them and participate.
"I feel like a lot people in our generation know about the issues but only if it affects you, your level of caring increases by a million. I think that if you aren't affected by [any of the current issues] you don't care," she said. "The reason so many of these current issues are going on is because of ignorance."
Lagunas said she is working with other universities in Indiana to form an organization to educate students about recent issues that are of concern to Latino residents.
A bill being discussed in the state legislature is the topic of conversation among Latino students. The law would require police officers to enforce federal immigration law, similar to the Arizona law.
"I don't feel good whenever I don't do anything for my community, because I feel that if I don't do anything for my community I can't complain," Lagunas said. "I feel like I don't have the right to complain if I'm not doing the change that I want to see in the future."
This year is the first time LLC will be held at Ball State, where students hope to encourage more people with Latino background to enroll and increase the numbers on campus.
Senior architecture major Alberto Corona is among the group of students that helped organize the LLC. He said he wants to see an increase in participation among the Latino community in Ball State.
"There's not much diversity here, but I think that with bringing the conference, it actually kind of opens up Ball State's perspectives," he said.
Corona said after he graduates he wants to see future generations in the university taking part in the politics and community issues. He eventually wants to live in Los Angeles, but he also wants to keep the ties with Ball State.
"I want to gain knowledge and bring it back here so we can start something," he said. "I think our generation of Ball State students are setting a good example, not only by doing LLC, but also by showing that you can step up and host an event of this magnitude."
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