Dear Marquette community,
Today, I am taking the opportunity to write you to reaffirm Marquette University’s commitment to the Hispanic-Serving Institution initiative. Since its launch in 2016, the HSI initiative has been a strategic, institutional priority — that has not and will not change.
One of HSI’s primary goals is to increase our Latinx undergraduate enrollment to 25% of the student body. Importantly, the initiative is about more than just enrollment numbers; quite frankly, it is about more than Latinx students. This endeavor is about making Marquette a more welcoming and inclusive space for all our diverse stakeholders. HSI speaks to the very heart of our values as a Catholic, Jesuit institution: to serve the traditionally underserved, to provide care for each of our students and to strive for inclusive excellence.
Our vision is to be among the most innovative and accomplished Catholic, Jesuit universities in the world — that cannot happen unless we embrace the perspectives, cultures and knowledge of our diverse students, faculty and staff.
We must do the hard work necessary to be a diverse campus environment in which all community members enjoy mutual respect and are actively engaged in the life of the university. Our teaching, scholarship and learning must be inclusive and reflective of the needs of our diverse world. And we must engage in meaningful relationships with diverse communities beyond our campus boundaries.
The HSI initiative is central to these endeavors. Through community and alumni engagement; linguistically and culturally responsive outreach, recruitment and support; diverse curricular and cocurricular programming; and educational opportunities to explore issues related to race and bias, the HSI initiative is moving us in the right direction. Not only do we have the most diverse undergraduate and graduate student bodies in the history of Marquette, but we’ve made tremendous progress in making our institution more rooted within the city we call home and more responsive to the lived experiences of our underrepresented stakeholders.
I want to thank the people who are making this possible — the faculty and staff who are working tirelessly, and the students who volunteer their time and expertise to make sure that we are on the right track and staying true to our mission. I am proud of you and of the progress being made through your efforts.
But the work is nowhere near done. While we are in tough financial times, I have been working with the HSI Steering Committee to determine our way forward. Rest assured, the important work of attracting and supporting underrepresented students will continue.
Sincerely,
Dr. Kimo Ah Yun
Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs
