"SAN ANTONIO, Texas — The Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU) joined other leading national education associations to establish a network of initiatives designed to close the college gap between minority and non-minority students.
“This comprehensive approach to providing motivation and the tools to succeed for what has been labeled the ‘neglected majority’ of our students will go far to close a gap between minority and non-minority populations that has widened in recent years,” HACU President and CEO Antonio R. Flores said.
“Many of these so-called ‘minority’ populations already are becoming the majority of students in our public schools. We must focus now on increasing college access and success rates for these students,” Flores said.
A Cooperative Agreement signed by higher education leaders to establish the National Articulation and Transfer Network was announced at HACU’s 2001 National Capitol Forum on Hispanic Higher Education, which ended last week in Washington, D.C.
Flores added his signature to those of presidents and CEOs of the United Negro College Fund, the American Association of Community Colleges, the American Council on Education, the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education, the Council of the Great City Schools, City College of San Francisco and Howard University.
The network is an expansion of a 1999 articulation agreement between City College of San Francisco and 15 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). The agreement now includes additional HBCUs and the nation’s more than 200 Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) represented by HACU. HSIs have a full-time student enrollment that is at least 25 percent Hispanic.
The target will “not necessarily be those minority students who already excel in the classroom and for whom the door of opportunity will be open,” the Cooperative Agreement states. Instead, the focus is on “that group that has generally been known as the ‘neglected majority,’ within which there is a disproportionate and concentrated level of minority student representation,” the agreement states.
“Despite a variety of creative efforts to systemically address the issues of inequity in educational attainment, the gaps between (non-Hispanic white) students and African-American and Hispanic students not only persists, but has widened,” the Cooperative Agreement states. “Without intervention, increasing numbers of African-American and Hispanic youth will be left behind.”
The agreement calls for efforts to generate the private, state and federal dollars needed to plan and implement the National Articulation and Transfer Network. The Network will be designed to provide students motivation, wider college access and a comprehensive support system. The goals are to increase pre-collegiate retention rates and community college enrollment rates, as well as to encourage the successful transfer of two-year community college students to four-year colleges and universities.
HACU represents more than 270 colleges and universities in every major state that collectively serve more than two-thirds of all Hispanic higher education students.
For more information, contact HACU Communications Coordinator Janie Valenzuela at (210) 692-3805. Ext. 3242. Or visit www.hacu.net. "
“This comprehensive approach to providing motivation and the tools to succeed for what has been labeled the ‘neglected majority’ of our students will go far to close a gap between minority and non-minority populations that has widened in recent years,” HACU President and CEO Antonio R. Flores said.
“Many of these so-called ‘minority’ populations already are becoming the majority of students in our public schools. We must focus now on increasing college access and success rates for these students,” Flores said.
A Cooperative Agreement signed by higher education leaders to establish the National Articulation and Transfer Network was announced at HACU’s 2001 National Capitol Forum on Hispanic Higher Education, which ended last week in Washington, D.C.
Flores added his signature to those of presidents and CEOs of the United Negro College Fund, the American Association of Community Colleges, the American Council on Education, the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education, the Council of the Great City Schools, City College of San Francisco and Howard University.
The network is an expansion of a 1999 articulation agreement between City College of San Francisco and 15 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). The agreement now includes additional HBCUs and the nation’s more than 200 Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) represented by HACU. HSIs have a full-time student enrollment that is at least 25 percent Hispanic.
The target will “not necessarily be those minority students who already excel in the classroom and for whom the door of opportunity will be open,” the Cooperative Agreement states. Instead, the focus is on “that group that has generally been known as the ‘neglected majority,’ within which there is a disproportionate and concentrated level of minority student representation,” the agreement states.
“Despite a variety of creative efforts to systemically address the issues of inequity in educational attainment, the gaps between (non-Hispanic white) students and African-American and Hispanic students not only persists, but has widened,” the Cooperative Agreement states. “Without intervention, increasing numbers of African-American and Hispanic youth will be left behind.”
The agreement calls for efforts to generate the private, state and federal dollars needed to plan and implement the National Articulation and Transfer Network. The Network will be designed to provide students motivation, wider college access and a comprehensive support system. The goals are to increase pre-collegiate retention rates and community college enrollment rates, as well as to encourage the successful transfer of two-year community college students to four-year colleges and universities.
HACU represents more than 270 colleges and universities in every major state that collectively serve more than two-thirds of all Hispanic higher education students.
For more information, contact HACU Communications Coordinator Janie Valenzuela at (210) 692-3805. Ext. 3242. Or visit www.hacu.net. "