The advancement and empowerment of Latinos/as in higher education is an important part of the mission of the NASPA Latino Knowledge Community. Through Blogging La Voz, we provide you resources and updates, in addition to what we provide through the newsletter. From this, we hope you will continue the dialogue that we believe to be important to the continued progress of our community.

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Goals for the LKC in 08-09

The LKC representatives had a planning meeting via conference call this week to review the goals for the upcoming academic year. Adriana Alicea-Rodriguez who serves as the national co-chair facilitated the meeting. Below are the goals that were presented to the NASPA National Board in June.
  • Develop a quarterly newsletter.
  • Promote usage of the blog and/or listserv as mechanisms to disseminate knowledge of Latino/a issues in higher education.
  • Coordinate a NASPA journal article submission, a Forum submission, and/or NetResults series of articles.
  • Continue development and coordination of the Latino/a issues in higher education institute at the national conference (Comadre Circle and Latino Male Summit).
  • Survey our members to establish a common agenda and goals.
  • Solicit program sessions for the national conference.
  • Further develop partnerships with other Knowledge Communities.
  • Restore the LKC mentorship program for graduate students and new professionals.
  • Develop an LKC mentorship program for Latino/a NUFP Fellows.
  • Seek support and collaboration from NASPA on national policy issues.

Hot topics were also presented to board and will take center stage during the upcoming year. They are the following:

  • Immigration and Higher Education: we must not ignore this controversial issue and provide guidance and support for institutions and participate in the national dialogue through NASPA.
  • Graduate School: encourage and support Latino/as to pursue doctoral degrees.
  • Access to Higher Education: with the increase in the cost of attending college, need to provide resources for students to access higher education.
  • Academic and Cultural Support: To ensure graduation of Latino/a students, need to provide the necessary services to support their educational needs.
  • Latino/a Senior Student Affairs Officers: Increase the number of Latino/a administrators on campuses across the country (Senior Student Affairs Officers and Presidents).
  • NASPA Leadership: Increase participation of Latino/a in leadership positions within NASPA (President, Executive Board, conference chairs).
  • Mentorship: provide mentoring to graduate students, new professionals and Latino/a undergraduate students (NUFP).

Upcoming regional and the national conference were also discussed. If you reside in Region V and would like to assist in coordinating the social events for the Seattle conference please let us know. You can email jperez@georgefox.edu or diazj@seattle.edu for information. The University of New Mexico will be hosting a symposium on immigration in the US on October 14th and 15th for more information you can visit the following website www4.unm.edu/elcentro/.