UC Riverside is among 20 of the nation’s top research universities that have formed the Alliance of Hispanic Serving Research Universities. The announcement was made June 9 in Washington, D.C.
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.
“By improving Hispanic representation in academia, this Alliance will change the face of higher education,” said UCR Chancellor Kim Wilcox, who was among speakers at the June 9 announcement, held at the University of Arizona Washington, D.C. Center for Outreach and Collaboration. “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.”
By 2030, the HSRU Alliance aims to double the number of Hispanic doctoral students enrolled at Alliance universities and increase by 20% the number of Hispanic professors 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, according to U.S. Department of Education statistics. In 2020, the combined research spending of these universities totaled more than $5.9 billion, according to the National Science Foundation.
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.
Prior to the formal announcement of the HRSU Alliance, the universities began working together on several initiatives. The first project, funded by a $5 million grant from the Mellon Foundation, will conduct cross-regional research and train doctoral students in Latinx humanities. A second initiative, funded by the National Science Foundation, expands opportunities for Hispanic students in computer science.
The Alliance began during the pandemic through conversations and distance-enabled meetings among presidents and chancellors, as well as faculty and administrators coordinated by the University of Illinois Chicago.
Universities in the Alliance include:
- Arizona State University
- City University of New York Graduate Center
- Florida International University
- Texas Tech 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.
