September 10, 2010 

HACU commits to Latino college completion initiative

The Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU) has joined 50 other signatories on the Latino College Completion national initiative, launched to increase Latino college completion rates now through 2025.

The initiative is in line with the goal set by the Obama Administration. The current educational attainment levels for Latinos, coupled with the projected national Latino demographic growth and a challenge to increase U.S. economic competitiveness, has prompted a great need to increase American college degree attainment and place greater focus on young adults and Hispanic students.

“The goals set by the Obama Administration to increase attainment of college degrees can only be reached if Hispanic-Serving Institutions have the proper funding for Hispanic students,” said HACU President and CEO Antonio R. Flores. “For nearly 25 years, HACU has been tirelessly working for Hispanic higher education achievement and we welcome the opportunity to work together with other organizations committed to the Latino College Completion initiative.”

The commitment made by the signatories represents the second step in the Ensuring America’s Future by Increasing Latino College Completion initiative, launched earlier in April 2010 by Excelencia in Education.

The 50 inaugural signatories have committed to work together to increase Latino college completion through:

• Intentionality in serving this group of students;
• Delineation of degree completion goals and measures of progress;
• Commitment to practices and policies that produce positive results; and,
• Clarity about the federal, state and institutional policy environments that affect Latino student success.