Working for Equity and Including in a Rising Hispanic-Serving Institution

• In Event: Culturally Sustaining Strategies That Promote Positive Outcomes at Hispanic-Serving Institutions

Abstract

UC Davis is a large public research intensive land grant university in northern California. The university just met its HSI designation (25% Latinx enrollment) and is in the process of submitting its first Title V grant proposal. In fall 2018, more than 30,000 undergraduates and 8,000 graduates enrolled in the university. Among Latinx students, 71% are first-generation and 43% are low-income. The university could be considered Latinx-producing since 78% of Latinx students graduate in 6 years. However, these rates are persistently lower compared to the graduation rates for white students (88%).

Nonetheless, UC Davis has been engaging in conversations about what it means for our institution to be an HSI for several years. Our campus has held public HSI forums, developed intentional outreach and retention initiatives to serve Latinx students, and charged a task force in 2018-19 to engage multiple stakeholders to develop a vision for our HSI mission. We are now developing a Title V grant within the School of Education focused on building a bilingual teacher pipeline. Within my own classrooms, I center curricula on equity and inclusion in higher education and employ active learning strategies to center student voice in classroom discussions and written assignments.

Authors

• Marcela G. Cuellar, University of California - Davis

• Raquel Aldana, University of California - Davis