Twenty of the top universities for research have pledged to double the number Latino doctoral students in their schools by 2030 and to increase the number Hispanic professors by 20%.
Wednesday’s announcement was made by the Alliance of Hispanic Serving Research Universities. This group of top research schools has been designated as Hispanic serving institutions (HSIs), which means they have at least 25% Hispanic undergraduate students.
This group includes Arizona State University and Texas Tech University as well as a number of campuses within the University of California system. Together, the institutions have more than 760,000 students, with a third being Hispanic. They produced more than 11,000 doctoral students in 2020, with 13 percent being Hispanic.
Heather Wilson, President of University of Texas at El Paso, and chair of the alliance said in a press release that, although Hispanics account for 17 percent of the U.S. labor force, they are “continued to be underrepresented” in higher education.
Wilson stated, “No group is more well-positioned than we are to broaden the path to opportunity.” “We believe that we are stronger as a group than individual institutions acting on their own.”
This group also works on humanities research and training, and is working to increase the number of Hispanic students in computer science.
In a study published in the Hispanic Journal of Law and Policy in 2019, federal data was used to calculate a shocking lag in U.S. faculty diversity between 2013 and 2017. According to the study, Latinos made up only 4.6 percent of tenured faculty, and 5.19% of tenure-track faculty at doctoral schools. These institutions were also the least diverse in terms of tenure status. Nearly three-quarters of tenured faculty were white, however.
Many schools within the alliance have shown an ability to defy national trends. In the past decade, UCI has nearly doubled the number of Latino doctoral students and faculty members. Howard Gillman, UCI’s Chancellor, stated Wednesday in a news release that the school will use the “distinctive qualities” of the alliance to make rapid progress.
Arizona State University is also a founding member. It has seen a rise in Hispanic students over the years. ASU president Michael Crow stated in a press release that the university is committed to improving access to quality education for all students.
He said, “This meaningful designation acknowledges our ongoing institutional efforts in support of the success of students that reflect the demographic diversity and, looking forward, the growing Hispanic population that will play an important role in the economic advancement of the nation.”
