I am very pleased to inform you that NEIU recently received notice that we have been awarded a $2.8 million Title V grant. Title V funding comes from the U.S. Department of Education; it is officially called the Developing Hispanic Serving Institutions Program. Our funding will be used to develop writing intensive courses in all degree programs as well as to strengthen the first year writing program. NEIU is one of only 30 universities nation-wide to receive a grant this year. This funding is available only to Hispanic Serving Institutions.

This brings to mind the topic of “What does in mean to be a Hispanic Serving Institution, an HSI?” When I spoke of planning in my inaugural address, I suggested that at its most basic level, planning is about asking important questions, gathering data and information to inform our discussions, and working together to find the best answers. While there are several important questions we hope to address, I included among them the question, “What does it mean to be a Hispanic Serving Institution?”

We might think of this topic as a mosaic—a work of art with many pieces that together form a design. Our topic is a mosaic in progress, yet to be put together into a coherent and beautiful design. Some of the pieces for our mosaic are:

• We are a federally designated HSI, meaning we have at least 25% Latino students. This is a newer category of institution, characterized by enrollment ratios rather than by institutional mission. Nationally, 6% of the higher education institutions enroll approximately 50% of the Latino students. NEIU has about 3,000 Latino students.
• We are a long-time member of the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU) and the recipient of the national 2007 Outstanding HACU Member Institution Award to recognize and honor extraordinary efforts and success in advancing the mission and goals of HACU.
• 9% of our tenured and tenure-track faculty are Hispanic.
• Our most recent 6-year graduation rate for full-time students entering NEIU as freshmen is 15.8%; this figure is 18.6% for Latino students.
• Our El Centro campus provides a special focus on service to the large, diverse and growing Latino community.
• Our curriculum includes a minor in Latino and Latin American studies.
• Our Proyecto Pa’Lante for incoming freshmen has been cited as a program of excellence by Excelencia in Education; our ENLACE program has provided support and encouragement for Latinos pursuing graduate study in educational leadership.

In addition to these pieces relating to our identity as an HSI, there are others that overlap this mosaic and add to the larger institutional mosaic.

NEIU is the most diverse university in the Midwest—we have not only 25% Latino students, but also 10% African American students, 10% Asian American students, 0.3% Native American students, 47% white students, and 7% non-resident and other students. This is an extraordinary learning environment. And we have additional programs, curricula, campuses, and faculty diversity that reflect the multiple dimensions of institutional diversity.

It is my hope that these pieces, and many others, will help to frame our conversation about what it means to be an HSI. I look forward to working together with the University community to arrange the pieces to forge our collective identity. While there is a potential for many answers (that is the nature of a mosaic), the overall design will become clearer during the planning process in which we envision our future. I believe the NEIU’s future is bright and that we are poised to become a major player, by example, in the evolution of American higher education.