Glad to see that UT will form part of what is called the Alliance of Hispanic Serving Research Universities. This will hopefully help to diversify Alliance universities, including UT.
The professoriate lacks much to be desired. For instance, according to IPEDS, or Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (2021), the percentage of tenured Latina faculty in 2019, was just 1.5 percent among all the nation's tenured professors. Once one parses this out by rank, very few of us ever achieve full professor status.
I shouldn't be the rare bird that I am. Several years ago when UT-Austin produced its Faculty Gender Equity Report and the authors went about the university sharing their findings, they were asked why Latinas didn't appear in the report. The authors' answer was that Latinas weren’t included because we were “statistically insignificant.”
That answer might make sense if we lived in Maine or Alaska or some other far-away place where Latinos aren't found—although their numbers are growing there, as well—but for our university to be located in a state where Latinos predominate demographically—rendered that response both unacceptable and offensive in the minds of so many of us at the time.
Expressed differently, our underrepresentation is a reason to include us in any and all research—even if other methods must be used. I know no one reached out to me for an interview. Otherwise, no complete sense or portrayal of this problem can be derived except for those of us that live and experience it on a daily basis.
Fortunately, we now do have the "Hispanic Equity Report" at the University of Texas at Austin authored by members of the Independent Equity Committee, especially by UT History professor Dr. Alberto Martinez. I encourage all to view this October 13, 2020 webinar that delves into the findings of the report. It was co-sponsored by the Texas Center for Education Policy, National LULAC, the National Latino/a Education Research and Policy Project.
The statistic for Black women is similarly low at 3.1%. Their Cohort Sistas campaign to bring awareness, mentoring, and support to increase their representation in the academy strikes me as something that the Alliance could do, as well, albeit for all Latina/o/x Ph.Ds.
As we know from research on diversifying our colleges and universities, having a diverse faculty that look like the students they are trying to attract matters enormously.
I know that it did for me early on when I was making those decisions to pursue my bachelors, masters, and Ph.D. degrees.
From a policy and practice perspective, we need a dramatic change in focus and priorities if we are to budge these numbers. Best wishes to all of us in this Alliance because the need for equity in representation is immense and long overdue.
-Angela Valenzuela
UT Joins Alliance of Hispanic Serving Research Universities With 19 Other Schools
MEDIA CONTACT
UT Media Relations p: 512-471-315 e: utmedia@utexas.edu
AUSTIN, Texas —With a goal to increase opportunity for those historically underserved by higher education, The University of Texas at Austin and 19 of the nation’s top research universities will form the Alliance of Hispanic Serving Research Universities.
The 20 universities represent every university that has been both categorized as R1 (very high research activity) by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education and designated as a Hispanic Serving Institution by the U.S. Department of Education.
“We’re thrilled to partner with leading research universities to expand and empower the next generation of Hispanic doctoral students and professors,” said UT Austin President Jay Hartzell. “As UT Austin strives to increase its global impact, groundbreaking initiatives like the HSRU serve as a national model in forging pathways to bolster opportunity and excellence in higher education for years to come.”
The HSRU Alliance aims to achieve two key goals by 2030:
- Double the number of Hispanic doctoral students enrolled at Alliance universities.
- Increase by 20% the Hispanic professoriate in Alliance universities.
“Hispanics are the largest minority group in the United States and are now 17% of the workforce, yet they continue to be underrepresented in higher education. No group is better positioned than we are to expand the pathway to opportunity,” said Heather Wilson, president of The University of Texas at El Paso and chair of the Alliance. “We believe we are stronger together than as individual institutions acting alone.”
Representing nine states, the 20 HSRU Alliance universities together enrolled 766,718 students in the Fall of 2020; of those, roughly 33% (254,399) were Hispanic. In 2020, the combined research spending of these universities totaled more than $5.9 billion. The four UT institutions collectively enrolled more than 152,000 students, of which almost 43% (65,061) were Hispanic. Their combined research spending totals $1.1 billion.
Prior to the formal announcement of the alliance, the universities began working together on several initiatives. The first project, funded by the Mellon Foundation, is focused on supporting more doctoral students in Latino humanities studies and guiding them to academic careers. A second initiative, funded by the National Science Foundation, expands opportunities for Hispanic students in computer science.
Universities in the Alliance are:
Arizona State University
City University of New York Graduate Center
Florida International University
Texas Tech University
The University of Arizona
The University of New Mexico
The University of Texas at Arlington
The University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at El Paso
The University of Texas at San Antonio
University of California, Irvine
University of California, Riverside
University of California, Santa Barbara
University of California, Santa Cruz
University of Central Florida
University of Colorado, Denver
University of Houston
University of Illinois Chicago
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
University of North Texas
More information about the Alliance of Hispanic Serving Research Universities can be found at HSRU.org.
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