CSU Northridge to become innovation hub in effort to improve success of Latinx students

California State University, Northridge will soon have a Global Hispanic Serving Institution Equity Innovation Hub on its campus to increase the success of underserved students in science, technology, engineering and math.

“The CSU, the nation’s largest four-year higher education system, has long been a leader in serving Latinx students with 21 of our 23 campuses receiving HSI designation,” said CSU Chancellor Joseph I. Castro. “The CSU takes great pride in the work we have undertaken to provide pathways to STEM education that result in the careers that power the world’s fifth-largest economy.”

The Hispanic Serving Institution designation is given to a university that can count at least 25 percent of its undergraduates as Latinx and at least half of their enrollment as low-income.

Faculty and staff at the hub will work with other Hispanic Serving Institutions to capture proven strategies that help accelerate educational equity, said Erika Beck, president of Cal State Northridge.

“We aim to shift the conversation away from what students must do to be successful to what our institutions must do to successfully serve our Latinx and other diverse students,” she said.

The hub was funded with $25 million allocated in the state budget and a donation from Apple.