You are invited to participate in a crucial conversation that is central to our strategic goals of fostering and supporting a diverse educational community.

Here is some background: While HSU has been classified as a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) for two years now, we have yet to articulate what this designation means for us as a distinctive campus community.

As you know, our HSI status is based on a mathematical fact: nearly 30% of our students are Hispanic/Latin@. Currently, however, the proportion of Latin@ graduates is far lower than that.  Our challenge is to figure out how to fully support and serve students from Hispanic/Latin@ backgrounds,in the context of  improving our ability to support HSU students from all backgrounds.

The first step in meeting this challenge is to clarify what being an HSI means specifically for this University, in this place and at this time. We will begin a focused effort to do that on September 10 & 11.  Dr. Beatriz Gonzalez, Associate Provost for Faculty at the University of La Verne, will support this initial effort, drawing upon her experiences at other institutions as well as her expertise in the area of culturally competent leadership. Dr. Gonzalez will be facilitating sessions with students, faculty, and staff, as well as with leadership groups on campus.

The goal in all these sessions is to maintain a focus on the future: how we, as a Hispanic-Serving Institution, will work together so that the students who enter our community are able to successfully complete their educational goals.

All HSU faculty and staff are invited to participate in an open session with Dr. Gonzalez, to be held Thursday, September 10, 3.00-4.45pm in the Library Fishbowl.

This event is sponsored by the Office of the President and the Office of Diversity & Inclusion. For more information, please contact Diversity & Inclusion at diversity@humboldt.edu.