The grant will fund a new HACU Virtual Learning Marketspace initiative designed to help those colleges and universities serving the largest concentrations of Hispanic higher education students to increase access to information technology and distance learning innovations.

HACU is enlisting the expertise of leading higher education institutions and education technology organizations for an inaugural HACU Virtual Learning Marketspace planning conference January 14-15, 2003, at the Menger Hotel in downtown San Antonio, Texas – the city where HACU has its national headquarters.

“This new initiative will comprehensively address the need to increase the capacity of our nation’s Hispanic-Serving Institutions to better serve their students, as well as lead to new national and international partnerships in support of Hispanic college and career success,” HACU President and CEO Antonio Flores said.

“We applaud Verizon, the world’s leading provider of communications services, for this vital new contribution to closing the technology gap for a population that represents one of every three new workers joining the U.S. work force today,” Flores said. “This is a critical investment in the advanced knowledge and technological proficiency of such a large percentage of our nation’s future labor, management and leadership ranks.”

HACU represents 342 colleges and universities serving the largest concentrations of Hispanic higher education students in the United States, as well as an international membership of higher education institutions in Mexico, Latin America and in Spain.

“HACU has enlisted a stellar Advisory Board to ensure maximum results from this comprehensive endeavor to rapidly expand the use of information technology and distance learning innovations in the Hispanic higher education arena,” said Alex Ramirez, executive director of the HACU Office of Information Technology Initiatives.

“Thanks to Verizon, we can directly address the much-publicized ‘digital divide’ between minority and non-minority populations by targeting those colleges and universities that collectively serve more than two-thirds of all Hispanic higher education students,” Ramirez said. “Together, we can now accelerate efforts to close the technology gap.”

Verizon Communications companies, which are the largest providers of land-based and wireless communications in the United States, boast a global reach that extends to 35 countries in the Americas, Europe, Asia and the Pacific. The Verizon Foundation is a leader in efforts to bridge the digital divide with innovative eSolutions, community enrichment outreach and computer literacy programs nationwide.

Among members of the HACU Virtual Learning Marketspace Advisory Board are: Bruce Chaloux, director of the 16-state Southern Regional Electronic Campus initiative of the Southern Regional Education Board; Leonardo de la Garza, chancellor of the Tarrant County (Texas) College District, a leader in the Virtual College of Texas initiative; Henry Ingle, a national distance learning development pioneer, professor and associate academic affairs vice president for technology planning and distance learning at the University of Texas at El Paso, and Sally Johnstone, founding and executive director of the Western Cooperative for Educational Telecommunications of the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE).

Other distinguished members of the HACU Virtual Learning Marketspace Advisory Board are: James Lyons, president of California State University at Dominguez Hills; Diana Oblinger, Senior Fellow for the EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research and a professor at the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Janet Poley, president and CEO of the American Distance Education Consortium; Jose Jaime Rivera, president of the University of the Sacred Heart in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Jose Trevino Abrego, Asesor de la Rectoria del Sistema Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM) in Monterrey, Mexico.