Special to The Herald

NEW BRITAIN -- Central Connecticut State University has been accepted into membership of the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities. The international organization represents more than 400 colleges and universities committed to Hispanic higher education success in the United States, Puerto Rico, Latin America and Spain.

"We are pleased and honored to be members of the association. Since its establishment in 1986, the association has demonstrated exemplary leadership on behalf of our nation’s youngest and fastest-growing population, and has grown rapidly in numbers and national impact," said Robert Aebersold, CCSU’s interim president. "Membership in the association is right on track with CCSU’s goal of continued growth as a comprehensive regional university with a solid belief in diversity."

"HACU is a great association whose primary goal is to promote Hispanic success in education," said Frank Donis, professor of psychology and president of the Latin American Association at CCSU, and the university’s contact person with the association.

"This is a goal that the Latin American Association at Central shares with HACU. We are happy that Central has become a member. This development also demonstrates Central’s commitment to diversity, which we applaud."

According to the organization’s Web site, www.hacu.net, member institutions in the United States "are home to more than two-thirds of all Hispanic college students."

In 1992, the association led the effort to convince Congress to formally recognize campuses with high Hispanic enrollment as federally designated Hispanic-serving institutions, and to begin targeting federal appropriations to those campuses.

©The Herald 2005

Back to CCSU in the News