New Funding Opportunities on the
Horizon For California's Higher Education Community
August 04, 2003
California colleges and universities reeling
from state budget cutbacks and an uncertain economy are turning
to a Hispanic higher education association for welcome new federal
government funding opportunities.
The Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities
(HACU), which represents 93 higher education institutions in California
alone, including Cal State Fullerton, is advocating for multimillion
-dollar federal funding assistance for cash-strapped campuses nationwide.
The leadership of HACU and some of its more than
300 member colleges and universities will host a news conference
at 1 p.m. Thursday, August 7, at the Hyatt Regency Orange County
in Garden Grove to announce its newest strategies to attract more
support for campuses that serve large, ethnically diverse and often
lower-income student populations.
“HACU has led successful efforts each
year to win record new federal funding and private-sector support
for higher-education institutions serving the largest concentrations
of Hispanics and other ‘emerging majority’ populations.
For states such as California suffering state budget cutbacks, our
work on the federal level is more important than ever,” said
HACU President and CEO Antonio R. Flores.
HACU chose California to host HACU’s 17th Annual
Conference, “Hispanic Higher Education Success: America’s
Path to the Future,” Oct. 18-21 at the Hyatt Regency Orange
County. Evolving legislation and cost-effective partnership opportunities
of benefit to higher education institutions and their diverse enrollment
will be a chief topic at this year’s national conference.
Cal State Fullerton will host a preconference Youth
Leadership Day Oct. 17, when more than 600 high school students
from surrounding communities will visit the campus for college preparation
workshops.
HACU since 1998 has been instrumental in winning
multimillion-dollar annual funding for Hispanic-Serving Institutions
(HSIs) in California, 25 other states and Puerto Rico in the form
of five-year grants ranging upwards to $8 million-plus in value
under Title V of the Higher Education Act. Dozens of California
HSIs already have benefited from Title V grants.
The number of California higher education institutions
becoming eligible to be HSIs, which have a student enrollment that
is at least 25 percent Hispanic, has escalated in recent years as
Hispanics have become the largest ethnic population in California
and in the United States.
HACU and its allies won a $93 million appropriation
for Title V grants in federal Fiscal Year (FY) 2003. This year,
HACU is asking Congress to nearly double that appropriation to $175
million for FY 2004. HACU also is asking Congress to expand the
eligibility for Title V funds to “emerging HSIs,” which
would substantially increase the number of higher education institutions
in California and other states that would become eligible for these
funds.
In addition to the general infrastructure support
provided by competitive Title V grants, HACU has forged partnerships
with federal agencies that have led to millions of dollars in annual
funding now available for the Hispanic higher education community
from agencies such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture and federal
Department of Housing and Urban Development.
HACU’s annual conferences have become national
platforms for rallying support for such federal support, as well
as to focus the attention of corporations and philanthropic foundations
on the need to invest now in the diverse student populations that
will one day make up such a huge proportion of the nation’s
workforce, taxpayer base and leadership ranks.
This year’s conference in Orange County will
detail how higher education institutions in California and other
states stand to benefit from legislation now winding through Congress,
as well as provide the latest information on corporate and philanthropic
resources for the Hispanic higher education community.
College students of every ethnicity will be invited
to apply for scholarships to attend this year’s conference,
where they can tap the latest available financial aid and future
job opportunities.
# # #
For more information, contact HACU Public Affairs
Director Daniel Casillas at HACU national headquarters in San Antonio,
Texas, at (210) 692-3805. Ext. 3249. Or visit www.hacu.net.
|