Thank you all very much for joining us here today. And thank you, Dr. Norman Maldonado, President of the University of Puerto Rico system, and Dr. Juan Sepulveda, Rector of the University of Puerto Rico in Carolina, for helping to make this event possible at this beautiful campus.

On behalf of the Office of Personnel Management and the Administration of President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore, let me say it is a great pleasure to be at the University of Puerto Rico in Carolina. I am so pleased your school is participating in our touch screen computer job information initiative.

President Clinton promised to give us a government that looks like America - and he is keeping that promise.

The Federal workforce is - in general - a model of diversity and opportunity for our nation. It has improved its minority representation steadily since President Clinton took office to the point where - today - the only area where we are behind the curve - instead of leading it - is in the representation of Hispanics in the Federal workforce.

Today, about 6.4 percent of the Federal workforce is Hispanic, while the total national workforce is about 11 percent Hispanic.

There are historical and demographic reasons for this disparity - immigration patterns and locations of available Federal jobs foremost among them. But, in the end, I believe strongly that these reasons are excuses, not explanations, for the currently existing underrepresentation.

Simply, this situation is unacceptable. When I became director of OPM my first major initiative was a nine-point plan to more rapidly attract and promote Hispanics into the Federal workforce.

At OPM, we recruit for diversity - but we hire and promote by merit. It is important to remember that.

Every applicant has an equal chance, based on her or his qualifications, and on no other factor. But it is essential to offer opportunity to everyone, to make all Americans aware of job opportunities in the Federal government.

We know that if we are to increase the number of Hispanics across government, we must be innovative in our approach. So we have worked hard to reach out to schools and universities with large Hispanic populations, particularly those which are members of the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU).

Last year, I made a commitment to place Federal Job Information computer kiosks at least 20 percent of these schools with high Hispanic enrollments.

Essentially, we wanted to be better able to reach the talented and diverse pool of applicants we must have at the entry-level of the Federal career pipeline. I'm very pleased to tell you, we not only met our commitment, we surpassed it. And I have no intention of stopping there.

Today, we have these touch screen kiosks on the campuses of 45 institutions with large Hispanic populations. That's more than one half million students around the nation who now have direct access to our computerized Federal job listings.

Today, the University of Puerto Rico in Carolina will officially receive the 46^th kiosk.

It joins six other schools in Puerto Rico with these computers on their campuses.

And I have to say, your school is a perfect partner for this effort. With a diverse and motivated student body, it is a fertile ground for recruiting the talented people who will fix our Federal employment imbalances - and make the Federal government of the future even better able to serve all the peoples of our great nation.

In fact, one of my current employees in Washington, Vanessa Santos, is a graduate of your school. So, OPM has already benefited from the contributions of alumni from the University of Puerto Rico in Carolina, and we are continuing to look for talented students from this area who might consider starting a career in the Federal Civil Service.

We are placing these computer kiosks in more universities every day, where they will put the latest and most complete Federal job information literally at the students' fingertips. You are on the cutting edge of this initiative.

How did we make this happen? Well, a key step in establishing the framework for developing partnerships like these among the Federal Government, academic associations, and professional and community organizations was established on March 15, 1990.

That was the date when OPM, National Image, Inc., and HACU entered into an agreement called "Project Partnership." Seven years later, under the direction of President Clinton, we entered into a more formal agreement with HACU to improve our recruitment activities.

And, to strengthen those efforts, OPM reached out to other Federal agencies, like the Departments of Treasury, Labor, Interior, Transportation, the EPA, and the Army, to join us in sponsoring these Computer kiosks at Hispanic-serving institutions around the country.

This partnership among agencies has been a great success, and by providing these computers, we are giving students a link to valuable information about how to get a Federal job through our on-line database of over 15,000 job vacancies every day.

Our partnership with HACU -- to which we have committed for five years -- has borne other fruit as well. It enabled us to bring thirty-three intelligent and industrious student interns to OPM in 1999. And we've already had another 11 at OPM this year.

Some of these interns have already used the valuable experience they've had at OPM to launch rewarding public service careers. Some of them are now full-time employees at OPM.

We have also established our own OPM internship program to provide Federal career opportunities for college graduates and other applicants. I am happy to say that 33 percent of our first class of interns were Hispanic.

And all of this information is available on OPM's website -- www.opm.gov -- available to everyone with access to a PC that connects to the Internet.

There is also information on such special programs as the Presidential Management Intern program, which brings the best and brightest graduate students into public service for what is either a multi-year sample of government, or a launching pad for a career in public service.

In either case, both government and society benefit -- and so do the individual participants.

The initiation and ultimate success of this program depends upon those who work directly with students.

Last year, we had more Hispanic students than ever before among the PMI finalists who were invited to Washington to be interviewed for these prestigious internships. I believe that representation will continue to grow, with your dedication and efforts. I am very hopeful - and confident - that we will see a growing list of PMI candidates from Puerto Rico.

I thank you for your efforts, past and present, to help the Federal government better serve the needs of the American public far into the future.

And I look forward to a long and productive partnership with the University of Puerto Rico and its alumni. Muchas Gracias!

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