With a record of attendance of 32 out of 43 presidents and representatives from institutional members; HETS celebrated its Summer Board Meeting on June 28, 2021. This is the third time that Board Members attend a virtual meeting through the Zoom platform due to the pandemic. The Board meeting discussed the results of the academic year 2020-2021 and the fourth year of the Strategic Plan 2017-2021. This report showed positive results like the increase of the use of online resources, more webinars with new speakers, Student Leadership Showcases in English and Spanish, continue offering HETS online workshops, among others. Also, presented new projects for next semester like adopting the final stage of the Open Source of our peer reviewed HETS Online Journal and offering the first Edition of the HETS Learning Technologies Leadership Academy (H-LTLA).
Among the initiatives shared with the Board, the HETS Executive Director and staff highlighted the major activities to support the organizational programmatic goals based on the three strategic core areas: Access, Retention and Successful Completion, and Online Learning/ Technology Integration. These activities included online webinars for the Academic community, the publication of the Fall and Spring Issue of the HETS Online Journal and additional tools and services that were enhanced to the HETS Virtual Plaza like the Peterson’s Test and Career Prep databases. Other initiatives included the Student Leadership Showcases and Tours held online in September and March in Spanish for Puerto Rico and Latin America, then in October and February in English for the institutions in the United States; and the 2021 Virtual Best Practices Showcase Conference and Opening Session.
During the meeting, HETS Chair Dr. Carlos Morales welcomed the representatives of three new member institutions: Prof. Julio Díaz, in representation of Mr. Jorge Mojica, Esq., president of Humacao Community College, Prof. Lillian Matos, in representation of Dr. Ana Cucurella, president of Caribbean University, and Ms. Jesenia Minier, in representation of Dr. John Clark, president of Western Connecticut State University. In addition, a corporate session was held in which various partners’ representatives shared with Board Members their latest services, events or projects to support Hispanic Serving Institutions and their educational community. Among these representatives were: Ms. Dorotha Ford and Dr. Joel Armando from Blackboard, Mr. Carlos Crespo from COBIMET, Mr. Marcelo Rodriguez from InQmatic, and Mr. Pablo Rodríguez from PR Top Level Domain.
HETS is looking forward to strengthening its initiatives and developing new strategies to innovate and support its member institutions in the upcoming semester to foster greater collaboration among all and widen the partnerships with other organizations. Next Board meeting has been scheduled for February 3 and 4, 2022 in San Juan Puerto Rico, and is programmed to be face to face at the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico, Metropolitan Campus.
