Whittier College was invited to participate in two national conferences due its commitment to serving underrepresented populations as well as providing an environment conducive to overall student success for student athletes.
First, the College was one of 20 select colleges and universities invited by the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation (JKCF) to the "Transforming the College Experience for High-Achieving Low-Income Students at the Nation’s Most Selective Colleges" workshop held on April 23 at the foundation's headquarters in Virginia.
President Herzberger, along with other college presidents, had the opportunity to interact with Ted Mitchell, under secretary of education, to hear the latest research on low-income students, and to discuss how to help high achieving, neediest students.
JCKF is a nonprofit organization that provides the largest scholarships in the nation to exceptionally promising students who have financial need.
This workshop supported President's Barack Obama initiative to increase college opportunities for well-qualified students from less affluent households. Such students often attend less competitive and less demanding colleges (a phenomenon known as “undermatching”) or don't attend college at all. The goal of the workshop was to equip these colleges with best practices to provide opportunities to this population and also to encourage the colleges' leadership to influence state and national policy around access to higher education.
In the same week, President Herzberger was invited by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) to present at the conference "Hispanic-Serving Institutions: Through the Eyes of Campus Presidents" held in La Jolla, CA.
Herzberger, past chair of the NCAA Division III Presidents Council, was one of the panelists in the 2015 Inclusion Forum session along with Dr. Mark Emmert, President of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, Dr. Antonio Flores, President of the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities, and Dr. Stephen Jordan, President of Metropolitan State University of Denver.
During the session, Herzberger shared best practices on the commitments that colleges and universities (and its leadership) need to make to create an environment that supports all students, including Latino students who were the subject of the forum, and the role that athletics plays in that mission.
According to the NCAA, the number of Hispanic student-athletes has increased by 29% in the past five years from about 17,500 to 22,500 which makes it the fastest growing demographic, yet still comprises less than 5% of the college athlete population. In contrast, Latinos comprise 38% of Poet athletes.
