The AZ HSI Consortium is pleased to announce the Knowledge River as an AZ HSI Evidence Based Practice. After careful review from colleagues across the state of AZ, Knowledge River was shown to be an effective program in moving the needle towards greater college access, persistence, retention, transfer, and degree attainment for Latinx students in Arizona.
Please read below to learn more about the Knowledge River program at the University of Arizona.
Overview of Institution
The University of Arizona was federally designated as a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) in 2018, the first four-year university in Arizona to gain this recognition. We are actively engaged in work to ensure that we maximize all opportunities associated with this designation. Coalition building with key stakeholders across HSIs is an essential element of our work towards advancing the benefits for our students, faculty, and staff by exchanging equity focused practices, accelerating advocacy efforts, and partnering on opportunities of mutual interest.
The University of Arizona serves approximately 51,000 students each academic year, with ~40k undergraduates and ~11k graduate students, with 25% Hispanic enrollment (26.9% at the undergraduate level and 19.7% at the graduate level), and 24.7% of staff and faculty are Hispanic/Latinx. Located in the southern region of Arizona, just 60 miles north of the US/MX border, the University is an ideal location for Latino/Hispanic students who have multi-generational roots in this region. Almost half of our students are Arizona residents (49.2%), and approximately 4% are international students from Mexico.
Beyond the statistics, the UAZ HSI office under the leadership of Dr. Marla Franco, the office has launched a variety of programs and initiatives designed to support and advance the spirit and purpose of the HSI designation. These include: the STEM HSI Working Group, the Culturally Responsive Curriculum Development Institute to help faculty develop inclusive curriculum, HIS Seed Grants to support faculty research and programs that center Latino/Hispanic students, and a variety of others that work towards long-term sustainable practices to recruit, support, and graduate Latino/Hispanic students.
Overview of Program
Mission and Goals
We recruit, retain, and empower ethnically diverse scholars in libraries, archives, and museums; and ensure equitable access to information for underrepresented communities with a focus on Latino/Chicano, Black, and Indigenous people. The Knowledge River (KR) program, founded in 2001, has historically served a majority Hispanic/Latino students as the program was founded in the need for Latino/Hispanic librarians. Over 67% of our students have been Hispanic/Latino, followed by Indigenous enrollment at 30%, and then by a mix of other ethnicities.
In a recent report by the American Library Association, librarians in the US with an MA degree identify as over 86% Non-Hispanic White, with only 4.7% as Hispanic, and the remainder being Black, Asian, and other (2017). Developing and enacting diversity and inclusivity in the library field to fully engage the community requires a commitment to challenging and educating ourselves and others. The rewards that manifest as a ripple effect of systems change and action become the norm when practitioners engage in actionable approaches in leadership, mentorship, and service as do KR alumni and graduates.
History and Practices
Knowledge River was founded in 2001 to increase Latino/Hispanic scholars to serve the ongoing and rising need of Latino/Hispanic library users. Based on a previous model, GLISA: the Graduate Library Institute for Spanish Speaking Americans which was also founded here at the UA (1975-1980), we are rooted in Hispanic service. Our goals are to serve by recruiting, supporting, and training Hispanic scholars who can meet the needs in libraries, archives, and museums. Identity as Latino/Hispanic can include those who cross-culturally also identify as Indigenous, Black, Asian, or White. Therefore, while we are founded in serving Hispanic/Latino students, we recognize the need to be inclusive of our students who identify cross-culturally from multi-ethnic communities, and who identify strongly as Hispanic/Latino.
We partner with Pima County Public Library, Arizona State University, University of Arizona Libraries, and others to place scholars in positions in libraries and archives, working with Hispanic library users, donors, and staff as learn-by-doing positions to support their academic studies and build work experience. These placements include a salary at 20 hours per week, health benefits, and tuition remission. The model of the program is to fully fund scholars during their master’s program, and to build a community of practice among scholars who enter the program with a cohort of fellow scholars. Evidence has shown that the community of practice builds a familidad that provides a network of support which has proven to increase graduate school success among Latino/Hispanic students.
KR works with the campus HSI office in a symbiotic relationship that supports the servingness and representation goals of the HSI designation by providing a path to the graduate program, recruiting from Hispanic focused programs on campus, engaging with campus research projects, and being engaged with the local REFORMA chapter (a professional association that focuses on Hispanic library users), and supporting other Latino-focused local institutions and projects.
Areas program seeks to make an impact and how
Enrollment: We have over 250 alumni to date, and we work to partner with community organizations and secure grant funding to ensure funding for each student. All KRs receive full tuition coverage, and most are placed in a graduate assistant position.
Retention: We implement evidence-driven programming that supports students throughout the program with funding, professional development, and work experience.
Completion: KR has a 96% graduation rate for program participants.
Career Readiness: We work with partners to develop graduate assistant positions that provide a salaried work-experience for students to build career-readiness by graduation. We also offer resume writing, website building, and networking opportunities for students to prepare them for post-grad job searching. Over 6% of KR scholars go on to pursue a PhD in information science or related fields, while the remainder report being employed in information science or related fields.
How does this program center servingness?
Student success is improved when institutions focus on students. The cost of college tuition is a well-known barrier to minoritized students accessing and completing college. Financial support as well as whole-student support is key to student success. The Knowledge River program focuses on supporting students in graduate school seeking an MA degree in Information Science with program elements designed for supporting students holistically. Support is provided in several ways to ensure graduate success: a full scholarship or a paid graduate assistant position that provide tuition remission; a graduate school summer seminar that build knowledge of the university culture, resources available to the students, and student’s own cultural knowledge; a network of program alumni who are actively engaged as formal and informal mentors for incoming scholars; ongoing professional development workshops and seminars throughout their graduate career; a dedicated advisor who also provides career advice and support; and, other resources and opportunities that develop skills and knowledge for academic and career success. By working with students from an assets-based approach, celebrating the knowledge Latino/Hispanic students bring with them to university, and overlapping cohorts to build a community of practice KR engages with Latino/Hispanic students holistically and equitably leading to academic and non-academic outcomes.