Towards Servingness: Transforming STEM Education at Hispanic Serving Institutions

Thursday 10:00am - 11:30am Brighton 3/4
Thematic Symposium

Vignesh Subbian, The University of Arizona
Guadalupe Lozano, The University of Arizona
Marla Franco, The University of Arizona

The number of higher education institutions earning the designation of Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) has more than doubled between 2005 and 2018, and accounts for 15% of all non-profit, degree granting institutions. Starting 2017, in response to two Congressional Acts, the National Science Foundation (NSF) funded a total of 11 national conferences to inform the design of their new HSI Program. The University of Arizona, one of first conference awardees, held a working conference that brought together over 100 faculty, students, and administrators from 42 Southwestern HSIs, including 37 HSIs and five emerging HSIs, to identify gaps, opportunities, and key recommendations for transforming STEM education at HSIs, and emerging HSIs. This thematic symposium on HSIs will highlight 6 major themes, encompassing 13 critical focus areas, and 28 recommendations, that emerged from our analyses of the conference transcripts, and are detailed in our recently published report:

The major themes are as follows:

  1. Advising, mentoring, and non-academic support systems
  2. STEM academic structure and related support systems
  3. Evidence based pedagogies
  4. Equity, diversity, and culturally responsive practices
  5. Research experiences and high impact practices
  6. Serving Hispanic students at HSIs
Symposium participants will be provided with an overview of these recommendations, along with relevant rationale and examples, and guided through discussions to elicit ideas for change at HSIs, particularly new and emerging HSIs, as they seek to strengthen the equity or "servingness" mindset at their respective campuses. Through this work, participants will identify opportunities to engage with one or more of the ASCN working groups as well as the STEM in HSI working group at the University of Arizona. Our aim is initiate collaborative work that raises institutional awareness of what it means to serve undergraduate STEM students at new and emerging HSIs.

Click here to access the private
group workspaces »The proposed 90-minute symposium will be organized as follows.

10:00-10:05 (Symposium Leads) Background and overview of STEM in HSI Symposium structure

10:05-10:10 (Participants) Creation of groups, each with focused on one lens related to change

  • Change theories: what frameworks can help guide change at various levels?
  • Change leaders: who can lead change and how?
  • Faculty and systemic change: what strategies substantively involve faculty in change processes?

10:10-10:25 (Leads) Overview of STEM in HSI themes & critical focus areas in the consensus report linked below

Transforming STEM Education in Hispanic Serving Institutions in the United States: A Consensus Report (April 12, 2018). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3238702

10:25-10:35 (Participants) Identification of up to two HSI critical focus areas to be explored using the change lens selected by the group (theories, leaders, faculty)

NOTE: Please document rationale behind your choice(s) on your workspace

10:35-11:05 (Participants, w/Leads input) Collaborative group work to envision/outline change tied to one HSI critical focus area, informed by group's specific change lens (theories, leaders, faculty)

NOTE: Please document your visioning/discussion on your workspace

11:05-11:30 (Participants, w/Leads input) Sharing of group discussion summaries with the larger audience