SAN ANTONIO, Texas –The Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU) is co-hosting a series of regional forums to address long-range college and career challenges facing the nation’s youngest and largest ethnic population.
With so much attention in Congress now focused on next year’s federal budget, HACU is focusing attention on next year’s Reauthorization of the Higher Education Act (HEA), which will lay the groundwork for the flow of federal funds to all higher education students and institutions for the next five years.
This Act remains the chief vehicle for targeting funds to Hispanic-Serving Institutions, or HSIs and other colleges and universities that serve the largest concentrations of Hispanic higher education students in 23 states and Puerto Rico. As the only national voice for HSIs, HACU will advocate for proposals during the Reauthorization process that will address the long-term challenges of serving a population group that also suffers historically low high school and college completion rates.
“The fact that Hispanics will make up half of all new workers joining the U.S. labor force within the next few decades lends urgency to our efforts to address issues that Congress will debate in 2003 and subsequently will vote on the Reauthorization of this Act,” said HACU President and CEO Antonio Flores.
“While HACU has proposed substantial increases in funding for federal fiscal year 2003 to enhance higher education access and college completion rates for Hispanic Americans, the Reauthorization of the Higher Education Act will allow us to advocate for a series of progressive increases in funding for the long term,” Flores said.
Leaders of HACU’s 318 member and partner colleges and universities will join leading members of Congress at a series of HEA Focus Group Meetings during the next two months that will shape HACU’s formal agenda for adding substantial new legislative language and funding levels for every title of the HEA. These titles address issues ranging from student financial aid and immigrant education policies, to teacher education, technology, campus infrastructure support and international education.
“The stakes are high, because how Congress chooses to address Reauthorization proposals for these HEA titles will make a dramatic difference on how federal funds are appropriated to higher education institutions for years to come,” Flores said.
“Since HSIs, on average, receive only a fraction of federal funds per student, compared to all other degree-granting institutions,” Flores said, “our goal is to end this historical inequity and open more doors to college for our Hispanic students.”
HACU and selected HACU-member colleges and universities will co-host a series of regional, one-day HEA Focus Group Meetings from noon until 4 p.m. as follows:
May 29: University of Texas at San Antonio, Downtown Campus, Texas
June 3: California State University at Fullerton, California
June 11: Miami-Dade Community College, InterAmerican Campus, Miami,
Florida
June 14: Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago, Illinois
June 21: University of the Sacred Heart, San Juan, Puerto Rico
June 24: Herbert H. Lehman College, City University of New York,
The Bronx, New York
“At a time when the competition for limited federal dollars and support is on the rise, it is imperative that HACU presents a unified, grass roots voice for the education needs of the nation's youngest and largest ethnic population. These HEA Focus Group Meetings are a critical component to meeting that objective,” Flores said.
For more information, contact HACU’s national headquarters in San Antonio, Texas, at (210) 692-3805. Ext. 3214. Contact HACU’s Washington, D.C., offices at (202) 833-8361. Or visit www.hacu.net.