Lessons from HACU
What is HACU?
The Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU), founded in 1986, represents more than 500 educational institutions in the United States, Latin America, Spain and school districts throughout the U.S. HACU is the only national association representing existing and emerging Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) at a federal level.
Annually, HACU hosts a conference to highlight important practices at participating HSIs, share research from thought leaders working at Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs), feature programmatic successes at participating colleges and share information and employment opportunities through vendor fairs and plenaries. This year’s 36th annual conference was hosted from Oct. 8-11 at the Manchester Grand Hyatt in San Diego, California.?
Why HACU? Why Now?
UNC’s vice president for the Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Tobias Guzmán, Ed.D., sponsored a contingent of faculty and staff to attend the conference with specific goals in mind: ?Connect and engage with colleagues from other HSIs. Learn from the work of other colleges and universities. Prepare for UNC’s next steps in HSI designation. Reflect on what has been missing from our work. ?
Conference attendees from UNC had the opportunity to participate in engaged learning and network with leaders from various professional and institutional backgrounds over four days. This contingent included:?Jonathan Alcantar, Ph.D., UNC professor of Chicana/o & Latinx Studies and faculty fellow for HSI Initiatives, Marcey Flores Jaco, coordinator and success coach for UNC’s Colorado Opportunity Scholarship Initiative, Cristóbal (Chris) Garcia, associate director of Alumni Relations and staff fellow for HSI Initiatives, Rogelio Garcia Perez, coordinator and success coach for UNC’s Colorado Opportunity Scholarship Initiative, and?Rodolfo "Rudy" Vargas, director of UNC’s César Chávez Cultural Center.
Lessons Learned
Networking and Professional Development?
As a recent graduate starting a career in higher education, Marcey Flores Jaco sought out the opportunity to network with program officers and industry leaders. To Flores Jaco, it meant a great deal to see fellow people of color participating in the work that was moving institutions toward greater levels of servingness while seeing herself reflected in that leadership. ?
“Being able to see other Latinx folks who work in higher education, especially fellow Latinas, was such a great inspiration and motivation for me,” Flores Jaco said, “It was also validating to see that some of the programs and services that UNC has been providing our students are similar to those at other institutions currently holding the HSI designation.”?
In looking for leadership and professional development opportunities for himself and the students he serves, Rudy Vargas’ interest was piqued when he learned of HACU’s growing leadership development programs. ?
“I was personally impressed by the different initiatives offered by the organization itself to promote professional development among Latinx professionals,” Vargas said “I loved learning about the many internships they can offer to individuals even if they are undocumented. HACU’s Leadership pipeline also includes mentorship programs which connect higher education professionals with current college students; these college students then mentor high school students in efforts increase success and graduation rates.” ?
Programs like these can support the future leadership pipeline of emerging higher education professionals as well as the students they serve and hope to serve in the future. ?
Preparing for Institutional Readiness??
In one of the sessions he attended, Rogelio Garcia Perez gained a stronger understanding of the institutional program areas vital to the success of an HSI designation. One such example is the Office of Admissions and New Student Orientation; a programmatic partner UNC’s HSI leadership has been providing guidance to for the last two years. “My favorite workshop focused on "entradas" or entry points, and their importance to students and families as their first interaction with a college or university,” Garcia Perez shared ?
Programs like UNC’s ?Adelante! provide students and families with a culturally and linguistically reflective opportunity to connect with the college search and admissions process while gaining a better understanding of college costs and financing options.??
Jonathan Alcantar found evidence that the centralization of efforts around an HSI designation seem to enhance successful collaboration between campus partners to ensure servingness of Hispanic and Latinx identifying students. ?
“From topics like how to develop institutional equity action plans, to programs designed to promote the inclusion of Latinx students in medical fields, the conference underscored the critical role that centralized collaboration efforts have in cultivating transformational changes in their institutions,” said Alcantar.?
As the only current faculty member attending the conference, Alcantar found key evidence of successful collaboration with institutional areas like UNC’s Office of Research and Sponsored Programs for grant application and management while ensuring students of all backgrounds are served.?
At a fireside chat with representatives of federal agencies including the U.S. Department of Labor, the U.S. Department of Personnel Management, the White House Hispanic Initiative, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Fulbright Program and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Chris Garcia was excited to hear that students and graduates of HSIs are currently being targeted for thousands of open internship and employment opportunities. ?
“As a leader in social mobility, it is vital that UNC continue to expand access to networks of employers on behalf of our students and alumni; many of whom are the first in their families to graduate with a four-year college degree,” Garcia said. “The degree programs these agency officers were looking to gain access to, are the same degrees so many of our students are graduating with.” ?
Tobias Guzmán, learned of another such federal employment program during the conference: The Hispanic Leadership Development Fellowship Program, sponsored by the Office of Minority Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), in partnership with the National Hispanic Medical Association (NHMA) and the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU), is offering graduate students and recent graduates a paid one-year leadership fellowship to accelerate their careers within HHS and the federal sector.?
During the plenaries, vendor fairs and open forums, we saw an expansion of the possible career and employment opportunities from HACU’s hundreds of corporate partners like American Family Insurance, Amazon, Southwest Airlines, Google, US Bank, Deloitte, KIA and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, to name a few.??
“We see this as confirmation that opportunities for successful career launch and development are out there, we simply need to prepare our campus community for HSI designation to increase access for our students and alumni,” said Guzmán.?
In another session, Garcia found that there were college systems leveraging private donors and local foundations in support of future grant applications. One example of this was the California Community College system that was able to start a?program with a $2 million donation from a local foundation and support from a small contingent of donors, the California Community College system was able to successfully apply for a $200 million grant after starting the ‘College Completion & Workforce Readiness’ at one community college with the goal that students starting community college programs in California (trades, certificates, and two-year degrees) would have a pathway for a four-year degree. ?
“With a pipeline opportunities from local schools, and partners like Aims Community College and the Weld Trust, UNC could lead efforts like these here in Colorado,” said Garcia. ?
Current Institutional Successes
While at the conference, several of our attendees heard praise from higher education professionals both in-state and from across the country. Colleagues asked for support in planning for and hiring bilingual communications professionals like UNC’s Bilingual Commuinications Strategist, establishing an HSI Fellows program or institutionalizing HSI efforts, so they are not the job of only the few who are currently doing the work. ?
UNC’s HSI leadership tested our statement on servingness with colleagues at existing, newly designated and emerging HSIs during the conference and gained positive feedback and insight while strengthening the statement. Guzmán brought the statement back for additional considerations, reflection and feedback from leadership at the cabinet level.??
Our HSI website and Noticias HSI newsletter were also highlighted as successes by colleagues and friends. ?
?Vamos Osos!
It was a pleasure and honor to attend this year’s HACU conference. The experience gave us a great deal to think about, and much to celebrate as we apply for a federal designation and continue to prepare our campus community and institutional supporters. We know we have done a great deal of work, but there is also much ahead as we continue to implement the programs, policies and practices that help us put students first at UNC.?
Get Involved!
As has been said times, the shift in evolving from a predominantly white institution to a Hispanic Serving Institution goes beyond the designation and speaks to our institutional identity, and that means we ALL must do the work together.
Help UNC become Colorado’s next Hispanic Serving Institution, by participating in one or more of the activities you see below.???
?Vamos Osos!
About the writer:
Chris Garcia currently serves as the Associate Director of Alumni Relations and Staff Fellow for Hispanic Serving Institution initiatives at UNC. He is a first-generation college graduate, a local community advocate, a podcaster, and has the privilege of working in higher education. Chris writes articles and speaks on topics such as: leadership, career development, higher education, and Hispanic/Latinx culture with the hope that we are nurturing inclusive practices and building resilient networks.??