Written by: Hannah Field | News Editor

The upcoming Hispanic-Serving Institution Summit will take place for the third annual time at Western from 8:15 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Friday, April 26, 2024.

The event is free but requires registration in advance by Thursday, April 18. Western students are encouraged to come and listen to the two keynote presenters, Dr. Patrick L Valdez and Dr. Marissa Vasquez.

Valdez, coming from the University of Kentucky’s College of Education, has 25 years of experience in the execution and development of academic and student success programs. Vasquez is an Associate Professor in the Department of Administration, Rehabilitation and Postsecondary Education at San Diego State University.

The Summit kicks off at 9 a.m. in the Pacific Room at the Werner University Center, leading into both speakers’ presentations, with breaks for food and a student panel taking up the brunt of the day.

Western is slowly but surely building a Hispanic-serving culture and community, as the student population ticks closer to 25 percent, a requirement for the school to receive the HSI designation.

Western would be the first public four-year university in Oregon to receive the Hispanic-Serving Institution designation — assuming another four-year institution doesn’t get there first, which is considerably likely as awareness of HSI designations has continued to spread and evolve.

Becoming a designated Hispanic-serving Institution allows opportunities to apply for federal funding and resources for the institution and students, such as support services and programs.

“The point of the event is to get all of these people in the same room to discuss how we can best support the Hispanic community,” said Sarah Lockwood, a member of the HSI Summit working group.

Anna Hernandez-Hunter, co-chair of the HSI Advisory Committee, has high hopes for the future of Western.

“I think for me, the biggest thing that I hope people take away from this is that it’s really going to impact the institution and everyone in a positive way,” said Hernandez-Hunter. “I hope that people take away that this is going to help us as an institution really, really focus on what helps students be successful.”

The term “servingness” is explained to be “a multidimensional and conceptual way to understand what it means to move from simply enrolling Latinx students to actually serving them” by the American Council on Education. The definition of what that means for each institution changes — as there are many ways to be Latino/a/e and every school will need different resources to better provide for that specific community.

Western shared a message regarding the event: “We are committed to engaging in this work with our entire community as Western continues to emerge as an HSI and focus on truly serving our students. We are stronger together.”

Contact the author at howlnews@mail.wou.edu