For immediate release

U.S. Department of Education welcomes
Hispanic higher education leadership group

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Leaders of the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU) today urged the U.S. Department of Education to dramatically expand support for the higher education needs of the country’s largest ethnic population.

A historic new partnership between the education agency and HACU was launched today with the first meeting of the U.S. Department of Education/HACU Leadership Group to establish a new framework for expanding Hispanic education opportunities.

“We are creating a new blueprint to close the Hispanic academic achievement gap for a population that will have such a profound impact on our country’s future economic success and security,” said HACU President and CEO Antonio R. Flores.

“HACU applauds the leadership of the U.S. Department of Education for this important new partnership to dramatically expand efforts to open new doors to college for our Hispanic students,” Flores said. “With Hispanics already making up one of every three new workers joining the U.S. labor force today, we all have a stake in the work of the Leadership Group to equip our Hispanic students with access to the advanced knowledge and skills they must have to excel for their communities and for the future of our country.”

Flores was joined by chief executives of HACU member higher education institutions from California, Florida, Illinois, New Mexico, New York and Texas in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday at the first meeting of the Leadership Group, composed of six leaders of HACU and six executives of the Department of Education.

The leadership group was formed as the result of a historic Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed by Flores and U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige on March 30, 2004. The MOU directs the joint Leadership Group to oversee the allocation of expanded federal resources and support to HACU member colleges and universities for Hispanic student achievement initiatives, internships, research and community outreach. HACU represents more than 350 colleges and universities that collectively serve more than two-thirds of all U.S. Hispanic higher education students.

HACU is calling for dramatic increases in federal funding for the nation’s Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) through Title V of the Higher Education Act administered by the Department of Education. HSIs have a student enrollment that is at least 25 percent Hispanic. HACU is also calling for first-time funding of a new graduate education component to Title V targeting support to graduate education programs at HSIs.

“With the fastest-growing careers now in fields demanding an advanced degree, we must target more federal resources to increase the ranks of Hispanics with graduate and professional degrees,” Flores said. “Our chronically under-funded HSIs cannot hope to address this challenge without a major infusion of new federal monies.”

HSIs, on average, continue to receive less than half of the federal funding per student accorded to every other degree granting institution. HACU has advocated each year since it was founded in 1986 to close that persistent federal funding gap.

Flores was joined at Tuesday’s inaugural Leadership Group meeting by Deputy Secretary of Education Gene Hickock; Sally Stroup, Assistant Secretary of Education for the Office of Postsecondary Education; Karen Johnson, Assistant Secretary of Education for the Office of Legislation and Congressional Affairs, and Adam Chavarria, Executive Director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans.

Participants were greeted by the new Leadership Group’s co-chairs Adriana Barrera, President of Los Angeles Mission College in California representing HACU, and Maria Hernandez Ferrier, Deputy Under Secretary and Director of the Office of English Language Acquisition representing the Department of Education.

The Leadership Group will coordinate efforts to expand representation of the Hispanic higher education community on Department of Education boards and commissions, and to increase the agency’s participation in the HACU National Internship Program – the country’s largest Hispanic internship program. Special programs and forums focusing on the expansion of Department of Education investments in Hispanic higher education also are being planned by the new Leadership Group.

For more information, contact HACU national headquarters in San Antonio, Texas, at (210) 692-3805, Ext. 3214. Or visit www.hacu.net.