ABQ Times

The University of New Mexico (UNM) is one of 600 schools in the United States recognized as a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI). While UNM holds this designation with pride, El Centro de la Raza, a resource center on campus for 55 years, asserts that more can be done to support Hispanic students, faculty, and staff. In collaboration with various campus partners, El Centro is organizing an event aimed at strengthening UNM’s Hispanic-Serving identity.

El Centro de la Raza will host Dr. Gina Ann Garcia, a professor of education at The University of California-Berkeley and author of "Transforming Hispanic Serving Institutions for Equity and Justice," to discuss strategies for better serving Latinx students. The symposium titled "Transforming UNM’s HSI Identity and Praxis: Beyond Hispanic-Enrolling to Hispanic-Serving" is scheduled for Friday, Oct. 4, from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., inside the Student Union Building Ballrooms. The event is open to all.

The objective, according to El Centro, is to engage in dialogue with academic leadership and the community about what it means to be an HSI. This includes addressing infrastructural gaps between the university and Hispanic populations in terms of funding, support, and programming. The center hopes Dr. Garcia can assist in creating an action plan for UNM that transcends merely enrolling Hispanic students to actively serving them.

"Institutional practices must value and acknowledge the diverse UNM community by creating opportunities that advance the successes of Hispanic/Latinx students," stated a release from El Centro de la Raza. "It is important to understand that Chicanx/Latinx students are not a monolith, and we do not truly know who we are serving, nor can we attend to their distinct experiences and needs which are shaped by many social factors such as race, gender, class, and ethnicity."

According to the U.S. Department of Education, an HSI is defined as a higher education institution where at least 25% of full-time undergraduate students are Hispanic.

For registration details: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdzdP6ywIc8BVAEalx-o7UgFKEKFU0UvWZq7ww8-y4F5WelLw/viewform

Further information can be found on El Centro's website.