The Alliance’s goals are to double the number of Hispanic doctorates and increase the number of Hispanic professors by 20 percent.
Texas Tech University is one of 20 of the nation's top research universities today who announced the formation of the Alliance of Hispanic Serving Research Universities (HSRU) to increase opportunity for those historically underserved by higher education.
The 20 universities represent every university that has been both categorized as R1 (very high research activity) by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education and designated as a Hispanic Serving Institution by the U.S. Department of Education.
“At Texas Tech University, we work every day to produce exceptional research and scholarship while advancing intercultural relations and global competency,” said Texas Tech President Lawrence Schovanec. “The HSRU Alliance will allow us to make a more significant impact by providing better support for Hispanic students, ultimately benefitting all students. We are proud to be among this group of distinguished institutions.”
The HSRU Alliance aims to achieve two key goals by 2030:
Double the number of Hispanic doctoral students enrolled at Alliance universities,
and
Increase by 20% the Hispanic professoriate in Alliance universities.
Representing nine states, the 20 HSRU Alliance universities together enrolled 766,718 students in the Fall of 2020; of those, 33% (254,399) were Hispanic. In 2020, the combined research spending of these universities totaled more than $5.9 billion.
“Hispanics are the largest minority group in the United States and are now 17% of the workforce, yet they continue to be underrepresented in higher education. No group is better positioned than we are to expand the pathway to opportunity,” said Dr. Heather Wilson, president of The University of Texas at El Paso and chair of the Alliance. “We believe we are stronger together than as individual institutions acting alone.”
The Alliance universities are engaged in thousands of research projects in the arts and humanities, STEM, health sciences, social sciences and other fields with world-changing outcomes. In 2019-20, Alliance universities produced 11,027 doctoral graduates, of which 13% (1,451) were Hispanic.
“This Alliance can help build bridges not just within Hispanic-serving institutions, but also among them,” said Ron Hendrick, provost and senior vice president at Texas Tech. “I look forward to collaborating with the Alliance member institutions to ensure our universities are welcoming places for Hispanic graduate students and faculty.”
Prior to the formal announcement of the HRSU Alliance, the universities began working together on several initiatives. The first project, funded by the Mellon Foundation, is focused on supporting more Ph.D. students in Latino humanities studies and guiding them to academic careers. A second initiative, funded by the National Science Foundation, expands opportunities for Hispanic students in computer science.
“With Hispanics making up less than 6% of U.S. doctoral students, we must be intentional about creating opportunities for Hispanics,” said Dr. Michael Amiridis, outgoing chancellor for the University of Illinois Chicago. “We believe this Alliance will make rapid progress in advancing Hispanic student enrollment in doctoral programs and broadening pathways to the professoriate by building on our strength as Hispanic serving research universities.”
The Alliance began during the pandemic through conversations and distance-enabled meetings among presidents and chancellors, coordinated by the University of Illinois Chicago. The effort took hold and grew into a determination to formalize the relationship announced today.
“By improving Hispanic representation in academia, this Alliance will change the face of higher education,” said Dr. Kim Wilcox, chancellor of the University of California, Riverside. “We can bring diverse perspectives into the research conducted by our exceptional faculty, creating opportunities for purposeful careers both in and outside of academia for Hispanic students.”
In addition to Texas Tech, the universities in the Alliance include:
- Arizona State University
- City University of New York Graduate Center
- Florida International University
- The University of Arizona
- The University of New Mexico
- The University of Texas at Arlington
- The University of Texas at Austin
- The University of Texas at El Paso
- The University of Texas at San Antonio
- University of California, Irvine
- University of California, Riverside
- University of California, Santa Barbara
- University of California, Santa Cruz
- University of Central Florida
- University of Colorado, Denver
- University of Houston
- University of Illinois Chicago
- University of Nevada, Las Vegas
- University of North Texas
Learn more about the Alliance of Hispanic Serving Research Universities at HSRU.org.
