Leveraging the Latinx/e Student Voice for Institutional Change
Emilio Ulloa, PhD
Melissa Gonzalez, M.A.
Mariano Lozano, PhD student ,
Vanessa Barboza, M.A.,
San Diego State University
HACU’s 37th Annual Conference
The Institutional Snapshot
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San Diego county is ~33% Hispanic/Latinx
Guiding Conceptual Frameworks
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“HSI’s provide a place where Latinx students can feel linguistically, culturally, and racially connected to peers, faculty, and administrators” (Garcia, 2015).
The Office of HSI Affairs
Regularly assessing our institutional and experiential data to identify equity gaps in success and in lived experiences.
Actively seeking out opportunities to “center” Latinx/Hispanic/Chicanx experiences in the design and implementation of our systems, curriculum, policies, and procedures that benefit all.
Promoting, celebrating, and affirming Latinx/Hispanic/Chicanx culture in visible and tangible ways on campus.
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1. Latinx/Chicanx/Hispanic Representation, Recruitment, and Retention
2. HSI Student Success, Academic and Liberatory Outcomes
3. HSI Experiences @SDSU (experiences of HSI Students, Faculty, and Staff)
4. HSI Research, Granting, and Extramural Funding Activities
5. Community and Transborder Relations and Initiatives
6. Education and Scholarship on HSI’s
Embedding and Amplification of Student Voice
Latinx Resource Center
Undocumented Resource Center
Latinx Student Organization Concilio
HSI Student Advisory Board
Latinx Student Experience Survey/Focus Groups
Latinx Resource Center and
Undocumented Resource Center
Cultivation of Student Voice
HSI Student Advisory Board
Tied to Office of HSI affairs
Recognized Student Organization
Connected to HSI Campus Advisory Committee
Participant Questions (Think, Pair, Share)
If you could curate Latinx/e Student voice, what would you want to know?
Once you had this kind of student data, how would you leverage it for institutional change?
Survey
Qualtrics survey was sent in the Spring 2022 to all students who identified as Hispanic/Latinx.
Total respondents (n=1070)
Purpose: To learn about the Latinx/e student perspectives.
Survey Findings
Student Voices on HSIs:
“Being an HSI means not only having a specific percentage of Hispanic students attending the institution, but also reflecting that percentage in the faculty/staff, as well as representing, celebrating, and affirming the Hispanic community on campus.”
“A place I feel I belong to, a place where students, faculty and staff reflect the demographics of Hispanics and Latin people in the city, a place that offers degrees and opportunities that serve Hispanic and Latin students.”
“An institution that should provide diverse, adequate services to all students because it's population is diverse. This should include recognizing where the majority of Hispanic students are located (IV) and work to improve the conditions of the campus, technology, services, resources, etc for those students.”
Curriculum and access
“As a Latinx student at SDSU who is biracial, I feel entirely unseen by many of these programs. SDSU, in spite of their best efforts, seems to fail in recognizing that a portion of their Hispanic/Latinx student body is from a multiracial household. Concerted efforts to include students like myself aren't made; until taking this survey, I had no idea that so many of these resources were available to me as a Latinx student.”
Focus Groups
We conducted a total of four focus groups during the Spring 2022. A flyer was sent out to various Latinx-based student organizations and campus departments. Five session were conducted in-person, one via Zoom.
Purpose: To learn about the Latinx/e student perspectives.
Focus Groups Findings
Faculty Representation
Students largely expressed a need for more faculty representation. Some participants felt a strong sense of belonging and identity tied to language but noted that while there are self-identified Hispanic faculty members, SDSU as institution had little Spanish language/cultural representation.
Curriculum
Students shared that lack of representation in certain programs and/or campus overall negatively impacted their sense of belonging. Some students shared that not finding fellow students who look like them contributed to this lack of belonging.
HSI/Servingness
“For me Hispanic serving institution means that it's an educational institution that acknowledges the intersectionality of being Latinx/Hispanic. …there's so many additional identities to being Hispanic. Folks coming for Puerto Rican or Cuban are coming from Latin America, so many different places, so I think an aspect of improving that is acknowledging all of the different identities that are within the Hispanic”
Cultural Identity
Linguistic identity was one factor in building a sense of cultural identity for SDSU students. When participants were asked about cultural identity, some shared that in certain spaces, listening to faculty members and fellow students speaking Spanish or talking about culturally significant things contributed to a sense of feeling at home.
“I think, being a Hispanic serving institution means that you welcome Hispanics like at the very least you welcome. I'm not saying support them or give them special treatment, but at least welcome them and, like we talked about, I don't think a lot of us feel welcomed. And we don't feel pride For being Hispanic. “ (Linguistic representation)
Financial Support/Information about financial aid
Students expressed mixed opinions about financial aid at SDSU. While some participants felt that the university was not doing a good job via email communication, and thought many students missed out on opportunities, others mentioned that they found out about grants and research funds via email.
“So a true Hispanic serving institution to me, sounds like it would be where Hispanic LatinX students are just as successful as everybody else. They're just not successful as White students, for example. Because there's a gap right, there's a gap there. They're not performing at the same level as White students…”
Implications:
The rich data and personal experiences shared during the focus groups validated and provided more context to the findings from the quantitative survey. These conversations can serve as guidance as the institution makes efforts to be a true Hispanic Serving Institution. �Ideas for improvement include:
Sense of belonging survey Spring/Summer 2023
Questions 13-25:
Survey findings
Findings cont.
Belonging is highest among
Latinx M= 4.44, Part-time students M= 4.15; Non-Commuters M = 4.03; ; Female M = 4.02;
Lowest among
Non binary students M = 3.33; Other Hispanic M = 3.33
Community is highest among
Non commuters M = 3.59 Latina/o M = 3.59
Lowest among
Graduate students M= 3.42; Non-Binary Students M = 3.00
Results cont
Belonging M = 3.96
Ethnic Based Belonging M = 3.85
Community M= 3.52
Ethnic based Community M = 3.48
Conclusions, implications, and unanswered questions
Leveraging student voice for change
Conclusions, implications, and unanswered questions
Participant question: (Think pair Share)
What are your main takeaways from this information?
What implications can we draw based on the input we have gathered from our students?
Participant question: (Think Pair Share)
What is one way your campus is curating Latinx/e student voice? What could your campus do in the future to further curate Latinx/e student voice?
What can your campus do to leverage student voice for institutional change?
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What other questions do you have?
Thank You
Gracias!
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session feedback
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Emilio Ulloa: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emilio1ulloa/
Melissa Gonzalez: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gonzalez-melissa/
Vanessa Barboza:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/vanessa-rae-barboza/
https://sacd.sdsu.edu/hispanic-serving-institution