Cassy Dame-Griff, a doctoral candidate in American studies, addresses the attendees of the Political Latinxs United’s town hall in Stamp Student Union on Monday, April 27.

Junior Will Chavez didn’t know what college was until his junior year of high school.

“I had always figured the next step for me was working,” the criminology and criminal justice major said. “I just didn’t know anything about [college].”

Chavez, the historian for the University of Maryland’s chapter of Political Latinxs United for Movement and Action in Society, is a first-generation college student and served as the moderator for PLUMAS’ first town hall meeting, held Monday night in the Prince George’s Room of Stamp Student Union in response to diversity concerns.

“As first-generation students, there are a lot of obstacles, and people are more prone to doing badly and dropping out,” said Karen Guzman, a 2014 alumna and co-founder of PLUMAS. “There’s not a lot of support from the university.”

More than 70 students and community members listened to eight panelists discuss the status and future of this university’s Latino community.

Sixty-one percent of children in the United States ages 5 to 17 have been first in their families to attend college, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. In the 2013-14 academic year, fewer than 3,000 of the 37,000 undergraduate and graduate students at this university were Latino, according to Forbes magazine.

As a result of this distribution, some students could feel “disconnected” from the campus community and don’t see much of an effort from this university to better it, Chavez said.

[READ MORE: University of Maryland group honors Latino heritage with quilt project]

Ana Patricia Rodriguez, a Spanish professor, began the discussion by bringing up the U.S. Latina/o studies minor at this university.

“This minor was born out of struggle and collective action,” Rodriguez said, “and the idea was to grow it.”

This growth includes the idea to create a Latino/a studies major at this university along with a Latino Cultural Center. Guzman said without these options for Latino students, it is hard to find a sense of community among the Latino population.

“African-American studies has a whole department, and we’re hoping that the university sees a need for that for Latino students,” Guzman said.

The panel also addressed concerns about funding Latino programs and supporting Latino students, including providing scholarships to undocumented students who wish to attend this university.

“We’re in a time of fiscal challenges. We have a number of programs that Latino students are a part of, but we do need more resources. We’re working to try to leverage the resources in order to do a more effective job,” said Kumea Shorter-Gooden, this university’s chief diversity officer.

Students in the audience at the panel also expressed their concerns about a lack of identity and community among Latinos at this university. Because there is not a large population of Latinos at this university, some students said they don’t feel like they have a place on the campus.

“When I visited this school, I thought I saw a Latino community. But when I came here, I didn’t see anyone who looked like me,” senior government and politics major Nataly Cruz said.

Chavez said it can be hard to feel like part of the community as a member of a minority group, but coming together and sharing experiences could help Latino students in the university community feel as though they belong.

“People talk about how if you’re a minority, you’re speaking for your community,” he said. “It’s not like that. I speak for myself. I’m just motivated to make my voice heard [and] make our voices heard.”

Rodriguez said she feels optimistic about future opportunities for Latino students at this university to overcome the obstacles some feel they currently face.

“We continue to be in the mindset, ‘Sî se puede,’” Rodriguez said. The phrase roughly translates to, “Yes we can.”