Hispanic-Serving机构

A Message from 密歇根州立大学丹佛’s Executive Director of HSI Initiatives and Inclusion

¡Bienvenidos走鹃!

成为恒生指数成份股 was a 12-year initiative that started in 2007 leading to Metropolitan State University of 丹佛 receiving designation during the Spring of 2019. It has been a privilege to lead our continued HSI Initiatives in partnership with the HSI Committee that consists of colleagues across divisions and academic colleges who are committed to serving our Latinx students with intentionality, while maintaining our commitment to serving all our students. 密歇根州立大学丹佛 aspires to become a model Hispanic-Serving机构 (HSI) by creating and sustaining initiatives that 支持 students as they achieve their academic goals and prepare for their careers. As we continue our HSI journey, I invite you to learn more about 密歇根州立大学丹佛’s HSI initiatives and I look forward to our continued work as a collective community.

Becoming a Hispanic-Serving机构: The 12-year road to earning federal designation

In 2007, then President, Stephen Jordan, Ph.D., launched an HSI initiative designed to increase Hispanic/Latina/o/x enrollment to 25 percent of our student body, including having a specific percent of our degree-seeking students eligible for Title IV funding. 当时, Hispanic/Latina/o/x  made up close to 20 percent of Colorado’s population; yet 密歇根州立大学丹佛’s student body was only 13 percent Hispanic/Latina/o/x . Our focus has always been to educate the students of Colorado, so we made efforts to ensure our student body reflected the people of Colorado, especially the 丹佛 metro area counties. 起点是12.5 percent Hispanic/Latina/o/x enrollment in 2008, we reached the required 25 percent benchmark during the Fall of 2018, 与26.4%. In February 2019 we achieved HSI Designation with 5,469 enrolled Hispanic/Latina/o/x students, more than any other higher education institute in Colorado.

An HSI Task Force consisting of six working groups or sub-committees was eventually created in 2007, led by Luis Torres and Judy Diaz Bonacquisti, with each team focused on a different theme or topic related to Hispanic/Latina/o/x students.  The themes for each the groups included institutional infrastructure, 学前教育, transfer and enrollment (including continuing enrollment), 金融援助, 以课程为主的政策, 教师, 以及员工发展, 和文化能力).

In 2012, a recommendation came out of the HSI Task Force in response to the reality of a tuition structure that required undocumented students – who had lived in Colorado for most their lives and attended high school in Colorado – to pay out of 状态 tuition. In response to this inequitable reality, we restructured our tuition requirements so that they could afford and gain access to higher education. 在2012年6月的会议上, the 校董会 approved a far-reaching and especially significant tuition plan, “Colorado High School/GED 学费 Rate”, only slightly above regular in-状态 tuition, which allowed undocumented students access to 密歇根州立大学丹佛. Following the lead of the 校董会, 一年后, Colorado lawmakers passed the ASSET bill which provides qualified undocumented students with in-状态 tuition at all public universities throughout the 状态. Being an affordable four-year institution in Colorado, as well as an institution that believes every student deserves an opportunity to be educated, 密歇根州立大学丹佛 was then and still is a clear choice for all students, including becoming the clear choice for many DACA students. In 2016, 密歇根州立大学丹佛’s HSI Task Force released a report, CONNECTING THE DOTS: Report and Recommendations of Metropolitan State University of 丹佛’s Hispanic-Serving机构 (HSI) Task Force.

密歇根州立大学丹佛’s HSI status benefits all 密歇根州立大学丹佛 students, not only those who identify as of Hispanic/Latina/o/x. Although HSI designation places importance on retaining and graduating our Hispanic/Latina/o/x students, it also provides opportunities to create and implement better and more effective practices aimed at retaining and graduating ALL our students. Our designation allows the University to be eligible to compete for and receive federal funds, including multi-million-dollar grants designed to encourage educational access and degree completion, 提高毕业率, develop partnerships with community colleges, promote access to higher education, and strengthen institutional efforts. Some have requirements to partner with other minority serving institutions.

目前, 密歇根州立大学丹佛 continues to serve the highest number of Hispanic/Latina/o/x students among institutions of higher education in the 状态 of Colorado, at 5,843, representing 31 percent of 密歇根州立大学丹佛’s enrolled student body. This includes all undergraduate and graduate students. Within the last two years 密歇根州立大学丹佛’s Hispanic/Latina/o/x student body increased by 3 percent, 6 percent more than Colorado 状态’s 22 percent Hispanic/Latina/o/x make-up. Thirty-eight percent of enrolled Hispanic/Latina/o/x students attend part-time while the other 62 percent are enrolled full-time. 60 percent of our graduate students and 37 percent of undergraduates attend part-time, with the remaining student attending full-time.

The benefits of our HSI designation are something we are still learning as 密歇根州立大学丹佛’s designation as an HSI by the Department of Education is a recent one. 自成为恒指成份股以来, 密歇根州立大学丹佛 has been deliberate in our efforts to advance this work structurally.  This includes becoming part of several national, 状态, and local organizations focused on addressing the advancement of Hispanic/Latina/o/x issues in education and beyond, 比如学生访问, 支持, 成功, 和职业.  密歇根州立大学丹佛 is a member of the Alliance of Hispanic Serving Institution Educators (AHSIE), 卓越教育, the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU), the Colorado Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, and the Colorado Coalition for the Educational Advancement of Latinx (CoCEAL).

2019年10月, 密歇根州立大学丹佛 has been awarded one HSI Post Baccalaureate Grant in Nutrition Program aimed at promoting opportunities for Latina/o and encourages access and enrollment of Hispanic/Latina/o/x Students to graduate school. Since June 2020, the University received $2,765,922 from the HSI/MSI CARES Act as a Covid-19 grant.

2019- 2020年, the Office of 多元化和包容性 created the DEIC (Diversity, 公平及共融委员会), a group aimed at examining diversity, 包容, and equity issues at 密歇根州立大学丹佛 with respect to policy and practice from multiple perspectives and across different functionalities. 这包括访问, 招聘和保留, community mending and outreach to diverse constituents internally and externally, campus climate and institutional culture, and HSI Synergy and Integration Efforts (a renewed and restructured version of the HSI Task Force). Now anchored within conversations aimed at strategic thinking and diversity planning within context of HSI. Part of the role of the HSI team is to remain current with and examine issues, 趋势, and advocacy pertaining to HSI initiatives, 项目和服务. This includes: (1) Gain awareness around laws, 规定, policies that have potential impact on HSI funding and designation; (2) Strengthen process and criteria for the identification and prioritization of HSI grants; (3) Benchmark HSI effective and impactful practices for consideration.