Key takeaways
The Latinx Success Center will open on the UCLA campus with a celebration on Cesar Chavez Day to help support students and the community.
The center, part of UCLA’s efforts to become a Hispanic-Serving Institution, will focus on student achievement and excellence.
UCLA earned the Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institution during the last academic year and is considered an emerging HSI.
“A place where our students feel like home” is how Claudia Salcedo described the vision for the Latinx Success Center.
Salcedo, assistant vice provost for academic partnerships, is one of hundreds of staff, faculty, students and alumni who came together to bring the center into fruition. As part of UCLA’s efforts to become a Hispanic-Serving Institution, or HSI, this new campus hub will focus on student achievement and excellence.
In 2022, the HSI task force released “The Seeds of Change,” a report detailing how UCLA could reach that federal designation, a goal set in 2020 by then-Chancellor Gene Block. University of California President Michael Drake issued a similar directive for all UC campuses to earn dual minority-serving designations as HSIs and Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institutions. Both leaders emphasized the need to improve address gaps in student opportunity and success amid the state’s changing demographics — about 40% of Californians are Latino, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
The report recommended establishing a resource center at UCLA, where 24.2% of undergraduates are Latino, to help improve experiences and academic outcomes with culturally responsive services for students and information for staff and faculty.
The seed planted for the center will be in full bloom later this month as the campus — under Chancellor Julio Frenk, the first Latino to lead UCLA — celebrates its official opening on the Hill at De Neve Birch.
“It is critical that UCLA be a place of belonging — a place where everyone is valued, and everyone adds value,” Frenk said. “The opening of this center is part of our commitment to fostering an inclusive and supportive environment where all students can thrive.”
Modeling inclusive excellence
More than 600 US institutions are identified as Hispanic-Serving Institutions. As the No. 1 public university and a top-tier research institution, UCLA aims to show that excellence and inclusion are inseparable when it comes to education. UCLA earned the AANAPISI designation during the last academic year and is considered an emerging HSI.
“Success” in the name demonstrates the center’s commitment to not simply being a space for students and organizations to come together, but also a community where all Bruins — including Latinx, first-generation and low-income students — can thrive and reach their highest potential, Salcedo says.
During the third annual Latinx Welcome last fall, Adriana Galván, dean and vice provost of undergraduate education, announced the creation of the center, which will be overseen by her division in partnership with student affairs through Salcedo’s office.
“This center draws on the courage, activism, inspiration and example of countless people over many years,” Galván said. “It is deeply inspiring to honor their vision for a better tomorrow by investing in our remarkable students even more intentionally today.”
The center will provide advising and academic services to drive retention and improve graduation rates, she says, as well as leadership and mentorship programs to help students prepare for careers and life outside the university.
Elizabeth Gonzalez, the inaugural director of UCLA’s HSI initiative, hopes the new center, with its focus on cross-campus synergy and best practices for advancing academic achievement and student belonging, can be a model for other institutions.
“This work will show the community they belong at UCLA,” she said. “And that UCLA is not just in Los Angeles, but of Los Angeles.”
Informed by other models like the Black Bruin Resource Center, the space, which all students are welcomed to visit, will include areas for studying and scholarly presentations, and a pantry stocked with foods familiar to Latino students.
The office of Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Darnell Hunt helped provide startup funds for the center. The HSI initiative also received external funding to establish the Latinx Success Center and sustain it through the next three years and support the Excelencia Scholarship, a needs-based program to increase affordability and access to UCLA.
