DRAFT 2 – The University of La Verne Latino Student Experience Comprehensive Plan
Premise
As a Hispanic Serving Institution, the University would benefit from truly becoming a
Hispanic SERVING Institution. Beyond simply qualifying for Federal Funds, becoming
an institution truly known for supporting and graduating Latino students would help
us play a vital role in the economic development of Southern California; strengthen our
place in the local community which is largely Latino; and attract the interest of donors
and foundations who are looking to support institutions who create opportunities for
Latino students.
Rationale
Becoming an institution known for supporting and graduating Latino students will not
happen without an organizational plan that delineates programs and structures from
pre-college through graduate school that will facilitate student success. The next few
pages comprise the formative document that attempts to define this plan. We need to
conceptualize what it means to be “Hispanic Serving.”
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Indentify
Policies
Practices
Performance/Outcomes
Our strategy must be intentional to “serve”
Foundation
The foundation of this plan is the high level of commitment amongst the current Latino
faculty, staff, administration, and supporters who have invested and continue to invest
of themselves into Latino student success. While these individuals have many
responsibilities that may or may not directly relate to promoting Latino student success,
the Latino Education Access and Development (LEAD) Conference was an example of
how a collaborative effort by many people committed to Latino success can be highly
successful. However, we need data systems that will allow us to continually assess our
outcomes to continually improve policies and practices; assessments every semester on
the La Verne campus and every term at the regional campuses. This would be based on
a University of La Verne Enterprise-Wide Strategy:
a. Who are we?
b. What makes us unique?
We need a high-impact “Hispanic Serving” imperative to frame our strategy. To
achieve our mission, we must grow our position as the #1 platform for student impact.
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The scale of our mission demands it
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Our student communities need us; our assets and our inter-dependent
unit, collaborative approach provides the greatest promise for driving
positive outcomes.
Our leadership position and relevance depends on it
Philosophy
This plan is not to segregate Latino students as a special group needing special
assistance. However, the Latino demographic has been show to be particularly
vulnerable to family and social pressures not to succeed in college. The goal is not to
provide entitlement, but opportunity. It is also not the intention to create a separate
structure specifically for Latino students, but to facilitate access to, and opportunities to
employ, existing programs whenever possible.
Taking Initiative
Five Bold Moves will drive success of impact of the “Hispanic Serving” Imperative:
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Bold Move #1
Commit to and implement a single business model that drives recruitment,
retention, and graduation rates.
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Bold Move #2
Create a unique and world-class individualized student experience
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Bold Move #3
Formalize a streamlined and systematic approach to serve students from
prospect to graduation stages (see following pages) and into graduate school.
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Bold Move #4
Develop the resource streams needed within and outside the university budget,
emphasizing our HSI status.
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Bold Move #5
Create a group to execute our Enterprise-wide strategy
Pre-Four-year College – High School and Junior College Transfers
1. LEAD Conference
2. Could be doing transitional orientation/summer bridge type experience
3. Financial Literacy
4. Financial Aid workshops for High School students and their parents (currently
ongoing)
5. Bilingual first-generation student orientation for incoming students and their
parents (already happening)
6. More pre-college camps to introduce those who are at risk NOT to attend college.
Freshmen/Sophomores
1. Freshman La Verne Experience (FLEX)
2. FLEX course focused on Latinos in the US
3. Sophomore La Verne Experience (SOLVE)
4. Curriculum in SOLVE that focuses on Power, Privilege, and Oppression
5. Cultural opportunities that allow students to engage in cultural identification
both within the La Verne Community as well as within the larger community
6. Not too early to start talking about plans – continued college work, career plans,
graduate/professional degrees.
7. Informative Workshops/presentations on financial literacy – should be ongoing
all four years.
8. Financial Aid/Student Accounts information as part of SOAR.
9. Bilingual SOAR workshops for students and parents
10. Teach what it is like to be a Latino/a Leader – we do this very differently!
11. Parents Forums – bilingual space for parents of first generation students to
connect, engage, receive beneficial information and opportunities to generate
questions (currently happening in October).
12. Additional preparatory courses, not just in English and Math
13. Latino-centered courses/curriculum (i.e. English 110 focused on Latino
issues/curriculum).
Juniors and Seniors
1. Graduate School Workshops
2. California Forum for Diversity
3. Senior Capstone Experiences
4. Exit Interviews (oriented around Federal and Institutional Loans
Currently offered on-line – expand to in-person, small group or even one-on-one
5. Graduating Seniors – Discuss opportunities for involvement as an alumni,
benefits, Career Services, Latino/a Affinity Group
6. Learning Enhancement Center – student support for writing-related assessments
(GRE, CBEST, CSET), especially for English-language learners
7. ID faculty and staff willing to work with at-risk students, provide list to students
as a resource (making sure that faculty/staff so identified have training in
various support strategies and referral sources)
8. Are we educating our students on how to research graduate fields and degrees
that will be marketable or not?
9. Can we incorporate Latino-focused capstone experiences?
Graduate Student Orientation
1. Undergraduate student advising about our own graduate/teaching/education
programs
2. Career Pathing – how a graduate degree enhances their lives and standards of
living (Academic Advising?)
3. Provide resources for internships in their communities or areas of interest
(hopefully, paid!)
4. Financial literacy for all graduate students (currently only offered at the Law
School)
5. Latino faculty interdisciplinary teaching/co-teaching
6. Latino professional organization networking
Other
1.
2.
3.
4.
AHSIE Conference Title V Best Practices
CSUSB-LEAD at Fontana Raceway
Latino Studies – minor and/or major
Coordinate our efforts with outside non-profits. We get exposure and our
students get a broader look
5. Hire more faculty of color who can provide classes (cultural connection) and be
mentors
6. Unity Luncheon – fundraiser to acknowledge diversity
7. Student Diversity Champion Awards for each affinitiy/identity
8. QPOC – Queer People of Color affinity group, look for resources and/or advisor
9. Community Engagment scholarship fir incoming students that requires X
amount of Community Service hours, maybe minor in Community Engagement
10. Cesar Chavez Day of Service.
11. Centralized Office/Gathering place for Hispanic Students, Faculty, and Staff
(like the lounge outside of the Mosaic Cultural Institute when it was in the thenSupertents?)
12. Faculty/Staff support for future Title V Grant proposals.
13. Supporting Latina/o faculty and staff through acclimating to university, support
through the Tenure/promotion process, and support in having their time and
mentorship of students "count." Many Staff and Faculty are heavily involved in
student mentorship; however, this takes time away from our other
responsibilities and is sometimes frowned upon.
14. We need to do a better job of recruiting more Latino faculty and staff for this to
be representative of our Latino students on campus and HSI status. Even more
imperative is also retaining the Latino faculty and staff we do have.