¿Qué pasa, HSIs?

We conclude season 5 with a conversation on emergence and the active process of becoming a Hispanic-Serving Institution. Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (SLO) is one of the last institutions in the 23-campus Cal State system to become an HSI. Comparatively, many of the 23 CSUs have been HSIs for over 20 years, which put Cal Poly in an interesting position to act with intention and joy. And that they did....

In this episode of ¿Qué pasa, HSIs? we learn about enacting servingness across space and time. We focus specifically on the similarities and differences of emerging as a community college HSI and a four-year R1 HSI. Yesenia Escobar Mendoza talks about her experience as a counselor at San Jose City College working in a center that was created with a Title V grant and carrying on the HSI legacy over...

Class is in session with Dr. Alexandro Jose Gradilla, an activist professor at Cal State Fullerton who is grounded in liberatory and decolonial praxis. In this episode we learn how to utilize both federal and private foundation grants to enhance servingness with and for Latine undergraduate students, graduate students, and faculty. In his words he provides us with a “hometown buffet” of things you...

Let’s welcome New England to the mic! In this episode we learn about the HSI Movement taking place in Massachusetts and across the New England region. Our guests include Dra. Elisa Castillo, the Assistant Vice President of Hispanic and Minority Serving Initiatives at Salem State University, and Julissa Colón, the Founding Director of El Centro at Holyoke Community College. These mujeres are fierce...

In this episode of ¿Qué pasa, HSIs? we spotlight empirical research that is relevant to HSIs. Our guest, Rogelio Salazar, is a doctoral candidate in the Higher Education & Organizational Change program at UCLA's School of Education. Guided by critical frameworks and methodologies that center an intersectional lens in interrogating P-16 policy, their research demonstrates how policies, organiza...

This episode features Dra. Cyndia Morales Muñiz who serves as Senior Director of HSI Initiatives at University of Central Florida (UCF). Dra. Muñiz led efforts that resulted in UCF becoming a federally recognized HSI in 2019. She now works across the university to develop a centralized vision for maximizing this designation in a way that meaningfully serves students, faculty, staff, alumni, and co...

In this episode Luis Maldonado teaches us about little “p” policy, or public policy, which includes finding solutions to difficult problems. As a policy advocate and lobbyist working with various organizations in Washington, DC for nearly 30 years, Luis has extensive knowledge on how public policy works. He served as director of government relations for HACU for 9 years, successfully establishing...

Do you know the origin story of HSIs and the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU)? In this episode we dive into the archives, by way of President Abel Chávez, to learn one perspective on how HSIs and HACU came to be. Dr. Chavez shares how Our Lady of the Lake University, or OLLU, played an integral role in the foundation, hosting an important convening of the first 11 colleges...

What is a Historically Black [emerging] HSI? This episode of ¿Qué pasa, HSIs? breaks it down and delivers the message you didn’t know you needed to hear. We know that HBCUs are unapologetically Black-serving, historically and authentically, but HSIs aren’t. In this episode we talk about what HSIs can learn from HBCUs with a focus on liberatory curriculum and empowerment pedagogies. We also talk ab...

We kick off season 5 of ¿Qué pasa, HSIs? with a dynamic duo of Chicana-Latina leaders who serve their campuses and advocate for their colleagues through the Classified Professionals Senate. Classified professionals is a term used in the California Community College system to refer to staff who are in non-faculty, non-counselor, and non-administration roles including administrative assistants, fina...

We kick off season 5 of ¿Qué pasa, HSIs? with a dynamic duo of Chicana-Latina leaders who serve their campuses and advocate for their colleagues through the Classified Professionals Senate. Classified professionals is a term used in the California Community College system to refer to staff who are in non-faculty, non-counselor, and non-administration roles including administrative assistants, fina...

Guests:  Gina Ann Garcia (she/her/hers), Professor of Higher Education, UC Berkeley https://www.linkedin.com/in/ginaanngarcia/ Allen “AC” Williams (he/him/his), Assistant Director for Retention Initiatives, University at Buffalo https://www.linkedin.com/in/acwp95/      Episode Description:  This is a short episode of ¿Qué pasa, HSIs? available in both audio on your favorite podcast apps and video...

In this final episode of season 4 we dive into the concept of decolonizing HSIs. This plática features Lorena González, a Michoacana, Purepecha, Mexica Indigenous cis gender mujer who is faculty in counseling and La Raza Studies at Contra Costa College. Lorena lays out practical ways that HSIs can move beyond land acknowledgements and towards true decolonization for Latine students. She calls HSIs...

In this episode of ¿Qué pasa, HSIs? we learn about San Diego College of Continuing Education, a noncredit college that enrolls more than 25% Hispanic students, yet is unqualified for HSI eligibility due to the federal definition. Dra. Tina King, president of SDCCE, talks about how the college enacts servingness despite HSI ineligibility. We talk about her equity-minded approach to leadership and h...

In this episode of ¿Qué pasa, HSIs? we engage in lessons in grassroots leadership with Dra. Leticia Villarreal Sosa, a scholar activist who serves as Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Development and Professor in the School of Social Work at University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. She shares stories of the risks and challenges that grassroots leaders face while trying to transform their campu...

We are committed to centering student voices on ¿Qué pasa, HSIs? This episode provides the opportunity to learn about the Using Our Voices to Transform HSIs project at California State University, Sacramento (Sac State). The project, funded by the College Futures Foundation, explores Latinx/e student perceptions of servingness at Sac State and aims to interrogate how university policies, programs,...

In this episode we transform the ¿Qué pasa, HSIs? microphone into a brown table talk with one of our favorite HSI leaders Dra. Cynthia Olivo, who is the 10th president of Fullerton College. Dra. Olivo’s career spans nearly three decades, serving in many roles including Assistant Superintendent and Vice President of Student Services at Pasadena City College and Associate Director of Admissions and...

This episode is packed with MSI-HSI-AANAPISI knowledge! Whether you are at a dual or multiple designation campus or not, this episode is for you! Our guest Dr. Mike Hoa Nguyen is an assistant professor of education at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, and the principal investigator of the MSI Data Project. He has extensive professional experience...

In this episode Dra. Karla Silva talks about her research with managerial professionals and support staff at HSIs. Her findings indicate that these practitioners are often the people on the ground implementing servingness at HSIs, yet they are overlooked in the servingness research, not invited to the HSI conversations on campus, and don’t feel like they are part of servingness efforts. They also...

We make our way to the Midwest for this episode, learning with the HSI Network of Wisconsin. HSI-NOW is a coalition of leaders from colleges and universities across the state of Wisconsin with a mission to collectively develop the ideal conditions to serve, educate, and advance Hispanic/Latino* students to create equitable opportunities in higher education. In this plática, I talk to 2 members of...

We kick off another season of ¿Qué pasa, HSIs? with our friends from Metropolitan State University of Denver. Dr. Michael Benitez, Jr. serves as the Vice President of Diversity and Inclusion and Dr. Del Real serves as the Executive Director of HSI Initiatives and Inclusion. In this episode we talk about the strategies they have used to advance servingness both on campus and across the state of Col...

For the final episode of season 3 I talk to Vanessa Varela, Assistant Professor in Education, and Jason Meyler, Associate Professor of Spanish at Mount Mary University, a small women’s college HSI in Wisconsin. In this episode we dive into HSI NOW efforts in Milwaukee, the evolution of servingness at Mount Mary University, and the importance of acknowledging language and multilingualism in serving...

This multi-guest episode of ¿Qué pasa, HSIs? is full of knowledge sharing. I had the opportunity to talk to 5 members of Cabrillo College’s HSI Task Force, who shared their journey to making an intentional HSI. They talk about the accomplishments of their HSI Task Force, share tips for gaining support on campus for HSI efforts, and talk about the secret sauce to servingness work, which includes gr...

In this episode of ¿Qué pasa, HSIs? we think outside of the normative constructs of higher education learning with and from Dr. Joe Louis Hernandez who is the Director for the Rising Scholars program at Mt. San Antonio College (Mt. SAC). Dr. Hernandez is a Streetwise Scholar who attended Mt SAC, Cal State LA, and Cal State Long Beach, all of which are HSIs, having profound effects on his education...

This episode of ¿Qué pasa, HSIs? features Dra. Dez Zuniga, HSI faculty lead for the Abriendo Caminos project at Pasadena City College (PCC), along with four members of PCC’s Student Advisory Equipo. The Equipo is an HSI initiative with significant impact and influence at PCC, led by Latine student leaders who participate in committees and working groups to help build a campus culture for serving L...