For immediate release
National Hispanic leaders to address forum
to build next generation of Hispanic leaders
SAN ANTONIO, Texas – Former U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry Cisneros will join the nation’s Hispanic higher education leaders February 5-7 in San Antonio to promote efforts to build the next generation of minority leaders for today’s increasingly diverse college campuses and communities.
The Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU) will host the HACU-Kellogg Leadership Fellows training program at the La Mansion Del Rio hotel in downtown San Antonio.
“We are honored to welcome a distinguished roster of national leaders to a forum that will address how to help train a new generation of Hispanic leaders for our communities and our colleges,” said HACU President and CEO Antonio R. Flores.
Hispanics currently make up less than 4 percent of college presidents, with the program offering their future peers a rare opportunity to meet many of those Hispanic college presidents gathered at one location for three days.
“Certainly, there is a dramatic absence of Hispanics who are presidents and senior administrators at our colleges and universities, even at those higher education institutions serving the largest concentrations of Hispanic higher education students,” Flores said. “We must have new leadership that better reflects the rapidly changing demographics of our communities and our classrooms.”
Program highlights:
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Former HUD Secretary and San Antonio Mayor Henry Cisneros, now CEO of American CityVista, will address the forum on ‘Leadership in the 21st Century’ at 11 a.m. and at noon Friday, February 6. |
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Crisis management will be the focus of remarks at 3:15 p.m. Thursday, February 5, by Antonio Perez, the internationally acclaimed president of Borough of Manhattan Community College of the City University of New York, which suffered the loss of students’ lives in the September 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center. |
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Emmy award-winning public television writer and producer Sandra Membrila Robbie of California will discuss the media and the presidency at 3 p.m. Friday, February 6. |
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HACU-Kellogg Leadership Fellows representing Hispanic higher education leadership ranks in California, Florida, Texas and New Mexico will join HACU President and CEO Antonio R. Flores and the HACU Governing Board at a special reception at 6:30 pm. Thursday, Feb. 5. |
The HACU-Kellogg Leadership Fellows are part of the Kellogg Minority-Serving Institution (MSI) Leadership Fellows Program, funded through the Alliance for Equity in Higher Education with a four-year, $6 million grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
The Alliance, created as the nation’s first unified voice for all minority higher education concerns, was founded by HACU representing Hispanic-Serving Institutions, the American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC) representing Tribal Colleges and Universities, and the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education (NAFEO) representing the country’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
HACU, which has its national headquarters in San Antonio, represents 359 colleges and universities in 26 states and Puerto Rico serving the largest concentrations of Hispanic higher education students in the United States, as well as leading international member higher education institutions in Latin America and in Spain.
At a time when almost every higher education
institution is suffering from state education budget constraints, HACU currently
is advocating before the 108th Congress for new multi-million dollar federal
funding support for Hispanic higher education. Every higher education institution
in San Antonio is a member of HACU.
The Kellogg MSI Leadership Program is directly addressing the need to end the
continuing under-representation of minority senior-level administrators in higher
education. Organizers predict that by the end of this decade, at least half
the participants in the program will be serving as a president or high-ranking
administrator at a minority-serving college or university.
“The HACU Leadership Fellows are among the best in their fields of research, teaching, administration and community service in Hispanic higher education today. Their efforts will contribute to a new, more diverse era of leadership in service to our country’s youngest and largest ethnic population,” Flores said.
For more information, contact HACU-Kellogg Leadership Fellows Program Director Patrick Valdez at (210) 576-3217. Or visit the HACU programs page at www.hacu.net.