HSI Equity Talk

Title: Understanding the advising praxes central to student success at a four-year Hispanic-Serving Research Institution

Presenter: Dr. Lydia Iyeczohua Zendejas

Location: Via Zoom (link provided via RSVP)

Abstract: Higher education scholars increasingly recognize academic advising as a critical strategy for supporting the persistence of systemically marginalized students. Since the 1990s, UC Santa Cruz has undergone significant growth and demographic shifts—undergraduate enrollment grew from 10,269 in 1999 to 17,517 in 2019, with sharp increases in underrepresented, first-generation, and Hispanic students—creating both challenges and opportunities for advancing equitable outcomes.

Dr. Zendejas’s interview-based qualitative study examines how UCSC’s decentralized, dual shared advising model shapes advisors’ ability to provide holistic, culturally responsive advising. In this HSI equity talk, she will share how advising structures, practices, and policies impact advisors’ capacity to support students, how the current model can act as a structural barrier to collaboration, and the advising praxis advisors identify as essential to student success, persistence, and retention.

Please complete this RSVP form if you plan to attend. The Zoom information and a calendar invitation will be sent to those who RSVP.