For immediate release

HACU’s 18th Annual Conference
to address Hispanic education needs

SAN ANTONIO, Texas -- The 18th Annual Conference of the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU) will focus the nation’s attention this fall on the college and career needs of the country’s largest and youngest ethnic population.

HACU’s 18th Annual Conference, “Championing Hispanic Higher Education Success: Investing in 21st Century America,” is scheduled October 16-19 at the Miami Intercontinental Hotel in downtown Miami, Florida.

“Our annual conferences have become powerful platforms for promoting higher education success for our Hispanic students,” HACU President and CEO Antonio R. Flores said about the country’s only annual Hispanic higher education conference.

“Our investments in higher education fuel our innovations, economic strength, social progress and leadership role in a world increasingly driven by advanced technologies that now demand the highest levels of knowledge and skills,” Flores said. “Opening more doors to college for our Hispanic communities is crucial to serving a population that will have such a profound impact on our workforce and leadership ranks.”

The leadership of HACU’s more than 350 member and partner colleges and universities will join public policy makers, corporate executives, community advocates, educators and students at workshops and keynote sessions showcasing changing demographics, latest trends and model Hispanic higher education initiatives.

AT&T, Bank of America, Ford Motor Company, the University of Miami, the United States Coast Guard and Gateway are among sponsors for this year’s conference. A Conference Exhibit Hall and Career Fair will showcase products, services and programs targeting the Hispanic higher education community, as well as scholarship, internship and employment opportunities.

“HACU's 18th Annual Conference will provide our participants a tremendous opportunity to network, forge cost-effective partnerships, and learn about new public- and private-sector education funding opportunities,” Flores said.

“Our HACU-member colleges and universities are at the forefront of every major effort to better serve a population that continues to suffer the lowest high school and college graduation rates of any major population group,” Flores said. “In this presidential election year, we must persuade the candidates and Congress to ensure that substantial new investments in Hispanic higher education become a highest priority.”

A focus of several daily sessions will be on the outlook for Hispanic higher education funding priorities in Congress. Congress is preparing to vote next year on reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, which will determine federal spending policies for higher education for the next five years.

The country’s 242 Hispanic-Serving Institutions, or HSIs, on average continue to receive only about half of the federal funding per student provided to all other degree-granting institutions. The sheer growth in the numbers of HSIs each year exacerbates the problem by increasing the competition for already inadequate funding among those institutions serving the largest concentrations of Hispanic students in higher education.

Ending this inequity in funding for Hispanic higher education is the focus of HACU’s Legislative Agenda, which calls for substantial increases in support for HSIs within the next fiscal year (FY) 2005 federal budget and also within the Higher Education Act itself.

HACU’s member colleges and universities collectively serve more than two-thirds of all Hispanic higher education students in the mainland United States and Puerto Rico. HACU’s international membership includes leading higher education institutions throughout Latin America and in Spain.

Sessions on international topics ranging from cross-border partnerships to the worldwide reach of new distance learning technologies for a global community of Hispanic students will be a daily focus at HACU’s 18th Annual Conference.

A pre-conference Youth Leadership Fair will invite hundreds of Miami area high school students to participate in a day-long event that will offer financial aid and college preparation information. The pre-conference 3rd Annual Latino/Latina Higher Education Leadership Institute will highlight efforts to train the next generation of Hispanic higher education presidents and senior executives.

Hundreds of top Hispanic college students from throughout the country will also attend a Student Track of the conference that will feature a Career Fair and daily student-focused workshops on resume building, career development, scholarship and internship opportunities. The free Career Fair will be open to all Miami college students and recent graduates.

Special sessions also will focus on the acclaimed HACU National Internship Program, the largest Hispanic college internship program in the country, which this summer surpassed the 5,000-mark for student participation since 1992.

For more information, contact HACU at (210) 692-3805, Ext. 14. Or visit www.hacu.net.