Dr. Patricia Marin, Assistant Professor of Higher, Adult, and Lifelong Education, recently presented, “Developing an Identity as a Hispanic Serving Institution” at the Institute for Equity Effectiveness and Excellence at Hispanic Serving Institutions held at University of Southern California, October 10-11, 2013
“While the label “Hispanic-serving” suggests that HSIs have a special mission to serve Hispanic students, HSIs, unlike other MSIs, were not founded with the express purpose of serving an underrepresented group. The HSI designation requires only 25% Latina and Latino undergraduate enrollment, and Hispanic students are not necessarily the largest ethnic group at HSIs, leading to difficulty in understanding what the HSI label means for those campuses that bear it. Dr. Marin will outline the challenges in developing an HSI identity when, even if Hispanic students are numerically in the majority, the culture still reflects normative, Anglo values, artifacts, and academic content.”