are student centered. To be truly student centered, we must create an intentionally welcoming environment, which is crucial to recruitment, retention, and the graduation of diverse students. Latinx students (as well as those students from other traditionally underrepresented groups, first generation students, and low-income students) come from a wide range of backgrounds. Serving this diverse student population will require a multi-faceted and strategic approach that is supportive of individual student needs. Brief Overview In Fall 2017, Provost Katherine Frank sponsored a small group of administrators, faculty, and staff to attend the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU) annual meeting. Five representatives from Academic and Student Life and Strategic Enrollment Management attended the meeting and returned to campus extremely energized and excited about helping to initiate next steps at CWU. In Winter 2018, after consultation with President Gaudino, Provost Frank convened an HSI Steering Committee comprised of nineteen members (including the five individuals who attended HACU) from across the university (see Appendix A) to explore the possibility of strategic pursuit of HSI status at CWU. While the possibility has been discussed informally at CWU for many years, there has not been an organized examination of this possibility. CWU needed to discuss what it means to be an HSI, how well positioned CWU is to pursue this designation, what is already happening on campus to support the effort, where gaps exist, and what types of investments may need to be made. Currently, there are four public HSIs (all community colleges) in Washington State: Big Bend Community College (37.2%), Columbia Basin College (34.9%), Wenatchee Valley College (39.4%), and Yakima Valley College (50%). CWU would be the only public university in Washington State to be an HSI if this status were achieved. Also notable is that CWU has centers located at three out of four of the aforementioned HSI community colleges. HSI Steering Committee Process The HSI Steering Committee began meeting in January 2018 and met at least twice a month through June 2018. Dr. Gina Garcia, Assistant Professor of Administrative and Policy Studies at the University of Pittsburgh, visited CWU in April 2018. Dr. Garcia is an expert on HSIs and emergent-HSIs, and she spent one and half days visiting our Yakima Center, and meeting with the HSI Steering Committee, students, faculty, and staff in Ellensburg. Dr. Garcia’s open faculty and staff session was attended by more than 100 people and was standing room only. Many attendees followed up with specific questions for Dr. Garcia following her visit. She also put us in touch with leadership at Marquette University, a private Jesuit university in Wisconsin that has just made the strategic and very public decision to pursue HSI status. While Marquette University and CWU are very different institutions with distinct missions, there is much that is similar about pursuit of HSI status at these two institutions. Both of our institutions will require careful, strategic, and patient efforts in pursuit of HSI status based on our location, current Latinx/Hispanic enrollment, and resources availability. An HSI Steering Committee meeting was held in May 2018 with Wilma Dulin, the Faculty Director for Yakima Valley College’s (YVC) Office of Institutional Effectiveness. Ms. Dulin oversees YVC’s Title V HSI grant and liaises with CWU regarding our participation in this grant project
CWU HSI Initiative 7.12.18
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online