Baylor to Host Spring 2019 Consortium Institute of the Texas Education Consortium for Male Students of Color

Media Contact: Lori Fogleman, Baylor University Media and Public Relations, 254-710-6275
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WACO, Texas (Feb. 6, 2019) – Baylor University will welcome representatives from nearly 40 Texas school districts, community colleges and four-year institutions as the University hosts the Spring 2019 Consortium Institute of the Texas Education Consortium for Male Students of Color on Friday, Feb. 8.

The Spring Consortium Institute will be held from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the fifth floor of the Cashion Academic Center, 1401 S. Fourth St. on the Baylor campus. A full agenda is available here.

The Texas Education Consortium for Male Students of Color, headquartered at The University of Texas at Austin, is a statewide collaboration with a mission to implement and sustain effective policies, programs and practices focused on increasing individual success and post-secondary completion for male students of color.

The Consortium is part of an overall initiative called Project MALES (Mentoring to Achieve Latino Educational Success), which was launched in 2010 by a team of faculty, staff and graduate students from UT-Austin and Texas A&M University to enhance the success of male students of color across educational sectors, with a special focus on Latino males. Baylor is among the partners in the Consortium learning community.

“We are truly honored to host this prestigious conference as it focuses on underrepresented male students. Male students in higher education have been declining across the nation, and it is imperative that we reverse this trend, especially for males of color who are lagging even further behind,” said Elizabeth D. Palacios, Ph.D., dean for student development at Baylor and special assistant to the president on diversity. “We welcome our partners, both locally and statewide, to our Baylor campus. Community leaders, school district administrators, university scholars and representatives across the state will gather to discuss the disparity of graduation rates, as well as share innovative ideas ensuring academic success.”

The Spring Consortium Institute seeks to advance the educational outcomes for male students of color by:

• Providing a collaborative space for independent school districts, community colleges and four-year institutions in Texas.
• Updating member institutions about the Consortium’s state of affairs.
• Engaging participants in research-based professional development activities geared towards practitioners and administrators.

The institute will convene Friday with remarks from by Emmet E. Campos, Ph.D., director of Project MALES and the Texas Education Consortium for Male Students of Color at The University of Texas, Austin; Gary Mortenson, D.M.A., acting vice provost of administration and dean of the Baylor School of Music; and Sinda K. Vanderpool, Ph.D., associate vice provost for academic enrollment management at Baylor.

In addition to updates on the work of the Consortium, the institute will include presentations on creating institutional capacity-building tools and activities by Luis Ponjuan, Ph.D., and his team from Texas A&M University; 60x30 data training by Luis Pablo Martinez, program director of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board; and concurrent sessions on “Introduction to the Equity Root Cause Analysis Tool,” “Plática Discussion Male of Color Initiatives on your Campus,” “Deeper Dive into the THECB Data/Research Digest Findings on Men of Color” and “Financial Literacy and How to Better Serve Our Men of Color.”

The Spring Consortium Institute is sponsored by Baylor’s Provost’s Office, Office of External Affairs, Academy for Leadership Development and dean for student development.

ABOUT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY

Baylor University is a private Christian University and a nationally ranked research institution. The University provides a vibrant campus community for more than 17,000 students by blending interdisciplinary research with an international reputation for educational excellence and a faculty commitment to teaching and scholarship. Chartered in 1845 by the Republic of Texas through the efforts of Baptist pioneers, Baylor is the oldest continually operating University in Texas. Located in Waco, Baylor welcomes students from all 50 states and more than 80 countries to study a broad range of degrees among its 12 nationally recognized academic divisions.