MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT

As the summer months come to an end, we congratulate all colleges and universities and their students who celebrated commencement. A special section in this issue features some of the ceremonies across the nation that returned to a traditional, in-person graduation. HACU also held its first in-person graduation ceremony for fellows of HACU’s Leadership Academy/La Academia de Liderazgo Class of 2021-22, which took place in California. Members of HACU’s Governing Board attended this special event, then held a strategic planning retreat that was also attended by HACU leadership and the Association’s Corporate and Philanthropic Council.

We continue to celebrate the accomplishments at the 30-year milestone of our flagship student program, the HACU National Internship Program (HNIP). A bipartisan Senate Resolution earlier this year recognized the 30th Anniversary of this landmark program for increasing diversity in the Federal government and the private sector. The program’s ongoing legacy includes being cited in the Office of Personnel Management’s Hispanic Nine Point Plan as a resource to increase the recruitment of Hispanic interns in the Federal Government. The program has placed students in nearly 14,000 internship assignments with many of the participants now serving at the U.S. Federal, state or local government level, as well as in private industry. See page 15 for a related article on HNIP.

I had the opportunity to testify to the House Appropriations Committee, Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies to press for increased support for Hispanic-Serving Institutions, as well as participate in a panel discussion at the Hispanics in Energy - 2022 Energy Legislative Summit. Both served as platforms for speaking about the urgent need to bolster the capacities of Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) to serve all students equitably.

We ask that you join HACU in recognizing the value of HSIs across the nation during National HSIs Week, to be recognized Sept. 12-18, 2022, coinciding with Hispanic Heritage Month. We encourage you to help raise awareness of HSIs and your institution through community activities, campus forums, and by using social media to amplify your events to commemorate the importance of HSIs.

We are looking forward to coming back together with everyone this fall at our Annual Conference and pre- and post-conference events in San Diego, California. This Annual Conference will be a return to the in-person, on-site schedule of events of previous years prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. We are so pleased to see that many have already registered and look forward to your participation.

HACU welcomes new members listed on page 13 and features HACU-member institution UTSA on page 14, spotlighting the 2021-2022 student winner of a laptop program that began in partnership between HACU and Gateway but has continued independently for several years now.

We hope your summer proves to be fruitful in either work or leisure, and we look forward to seeing you in person in San Diego for HACU’s 36th Annual Conference, Oct. 8-10, 2022!

Cordially,

Antonio R. Flores President and CEO