Hispanic Latino Staff and Faculty Council

Main Content

Introduction

As a university constituency group, the Hispanic/Latino Faculty Staff Council aims to serve as a representative voice of persons who identify themselves as Hispanic, Latino, Indigenous, their descendants, or allies. We are here to promote a positive community and recognize the role and historical context of the aforementioned peoples.

Besides cultivating a sense of community, our principal goal is to advocate for the equitable treatment of Hispanic/Latino Students, Civil Service, Administrative Professional Staff, and Faculty on campus.

Access our constitution and stated goals through this link.

Contact Information for Our Officers

President, Jean-Pierre Reed, Professor of Africana Studies, Philosophy, and Sociology at the School of Africana and Multicultural Studies and School of Anthropology, Political Science, and Sociology, reedjp@siu.edu.

Vice President, Rita Medina, Coordinator of Recruitment and Retention, Exploratory Student Advisement, rita.medina@siu.edu.

Secretary, Leticia Velasquez, Instructional Development Specialist, Instructional Development Specialist, leticia.velasquez@siu.edu.

Treasurer, Rob Lopez, Associate Professor and Interim Director, School of Art and Design, roblopez@siu.edu.

Representatives:

  • AP Staff, Lilia Angel-Post, Assistant Director, Center for English as a Second Languages (CESL), langel@siu.edu.
  • Civil Service, Elizabeth Taylor, Marketing Associate, University Communications and Marketing, elizabeth.taylor@siu.edu
  • Faculty, Yancy Cruz, Assistant Professor, Counseling and Rehabilitation Education, yancy.cruz@siu.edu.
  • Graduate Students, Rosalba Alvarado Acevedo, Graduate Student and Teaching Assistant, School of Languages and Linguistics, rosalba.alvarado@siu.edu.

Important Events

Fall Semester:

  • Meeting 1: September (Executive Council)
  • Meeting 2: October (General members meeting and social event)
  • Meeting 3: November (General members meeting and social event)
  • Meeting 4: December (Executive Council)

Spring Semester:

  • Meeting 1: February (Executive Council)
  • Meeting 2: March (General members meeting and social event)
  • Meeting 3: April (General members meeting and social event & Annual Elections)
  • Meeting 4: May (Executive Council)

Please contact a council member for specific dates each semester.

 

Hispanic/Latino Interest Web Sites

Diversity Statement

The Hispanic Latino Staff and Faculty Council (HLSFC) considers diversity a key issue and a necessary principle of organization for a university community. To be specific, besides acknowledging difference, to us diversity means inclusion, commitment to change, and radical multi-culturalism. Inclusion of all voices, especially marginalized ones, so as to recognize their equal validity. To invoke the word diversity means to commit oneself to changing the university community environment. That is, it means accountability, more than lip service, and living up to a principle of openness. Diversity means delivering. Connecting administrators, faculty, staff, students, and surrounding community members to discuss and listen to each other in order to work to create a university community that really reflects our democratic and social justice ideals and our multicultural heritage as a nation. To this end developing programs to keep track of and implement diversity goals is a must. Having an Office of Diversity, as SIU does, made up of experts familiar with diversity issues, programs, and services (such as diversity training) is a significant way to move forward.

Diversity also means Radical Multiculturalism. Here, we refer to coming to terms with difference in terms of the legacy of oppression in U.S. history by displacing/questioning Anglo-Saxon centrality and demonstrating through training and teaching how oppression has long been a part of the way we treat racial / ethnic others. As Matthew Desmond and Mustafa Emirbayer have noted in Racial Progress, Racial Domination, Radical “Multiculturalism … is not simply about recognizing other people’s identities and cultural scripts; it is also about recognizing their problems —how they are unfairly treated in a democracy that promises them full and equal inclusion— and responding with intelligent and just remedies. For the multiculturalist, racial justice is the value; racial diversity and equality are the results” (2010:518). This focus on equality, oppression and social justice, needless to say, is also connected to issues of class, gender, sexuality, and disability.

Ultimately, diversity means increasing awareness of social and cultural differences; helping university community members become better versions of themselves as in being more open to difference; preparing students, disadvantage and otherwise, to enter their diverse worlds here at home but also abroad, given the reality of human differences; improving or creating a campus climate for better interpersonal interactions / relationships; increasing the cultural and social competency of members of the university community; making the university environment more inclusive; and playing an active role in societal change by way of example and through teaching.

For further information on the aforementioned issues access the following links:

References
Desmond, Matthew and Mustafa Emirbayer. 2010. Racial Progress, Racial Domination: The Sociology of Race in America. New York: McGraw-Hill.