Concerns expressed across reports include a lack of strategic effort around Hispanic-serving initiatives on campus. Many subcommittees emphasize the amount of promising work taking place on campus, but note that the work is not strategic, well connected, or necessarily highly visible. Many groups feel the lack of strategic organization and orchestration lessen the overall impact of the work. Concern is also expressed regarding the recruitment and retention of faculty and staff from underrepresented groups, although it is noted that improvements are being made in this area. There are questions regarding how effective, comprehensive, and current academic curriculum is to serve the needs of students interested in Latinx/Hispanic affairs. Finally, there is concern expressed about the amount of resources available and needed to support strategic pursuit of HSI status. Several reports emphasize the need for dedicated space on campus to support HSI efforts. One report refers to the need for a resource center, some refer to the need for an academic center, and some refer to a future multicultural center as a viable option. It appears groups would like to see a holistic center that includes academic and non-academic resources to support HSI efforts on campus. The vision across all reports that mention a center describes resources for students and their familial network, academic and non-academic support, programming, and community outreach. Also mentioned in several reports is the need for consistent translation services and key resources published in Spanish, particularly for those directed at families. Again, group members acknowledge there is work being done on improving translation services across campus and encourage expansion of these efforts going forward. Suggestions for Next Steps After a year of data collection and exploratory conversations, the HSI Steering Committee believes the strategic pursuit of HSI status is a potentially fundamental endeavor for CWU. In a national context where higher education faces the challenge to adapt to changing students’ demographics that demand more sensitive and innovative pedagogical approaches while pursuing managerial models centered on revenue production, strong internal tensions can become characteristic of internal functioning dynamics where institutional identities and mission goals fracture or appear to lose track. In radical contrast with this national tenor, a unifying tone exists at CWU, where various stakeholders believe that becoming an HSI is a desirable and imperative goal. While in dialogue with many students, faculty, staff and administrators, the steering committee found thoughtful engagement with and enthusiastic support for this idea. Moreover, it was clear that where there were already existing efforts or latent intentions focused in this direction, people felt empowered just by knowing this conversation was taking place and redoubled efforts to better serve students and make CWU an even more inclusive space. In this way, the idea of pursuing HSI status offers a core narrative that could help unify this institution. Such an idea also offers the possibility to better ground CWU within the region and peripheral communities it serves. The fact that such a considerable number of discrete efforts to better serve the growing diversity of our student population pre-date this conversation at CWU reflects the long- ago identified need by faculty and staff to reflect Washington state’s demographic changes. As an institution committed to providing access, the invitation to reimagine policies and practices at CWU, to create more inclusive classroom environments, to create strong connections between the institution and its neighboring communities is unquestionably here. In this context, an image seems fitting: a pebble resonating in a pond. To become an HSI seems to represent a dialogue at CWU that unifies us, that empowers our doing, that generates stronger accountability within our campus and
CWU HSI Initiative 7.12.18
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online