Gates, A. Q., Thiry, H., & Hug, S. (2016). Reflections: The Computing Alliance of Hispanic- Serving Institutions. ACM Inroads, 7(4), 69-73.

The Computing Alliance of Hispanic-Serving Institutions (CAHSI) celebrates its ten-year anniversary in 2016, providing an ideal opportunity to reflect on the organization, its accomplishments, and the future. The inspiration for CAHSI originated from discussions at the 2004 National Science Foundation’s (NSF) biennial Minority Institutions Infrastructure (MII) meeting, which centered on the need for a grassroots effort to unify and strengthen computing research and education among Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs). In particular, the discussion focused on how to address the under-representation of Hispanics in computing, dissemination of best practices, and development of future Hispanic leaders. Computer science (CS) departments across the country had shown large declines in enrollment between 2002 and 2007 [25], while the MII HSIs experienced dramatic increases in overall undergraduate student population at their institutions and the opportunities for recruiting Hispanic students into computing. With the projected growth of Hispanics, it is essential to ensure that Hispanics attend college, graduate, and seek advanced degrees because of their potential impact on the economic and intellectual growth of the United States. The MII core group of seven institutions (see Figure 1) came together after that initial meeting to respond to NSF’s Broadening Participation in Computing solicitation to form CAHSI and define its core purpose: to create a unified voice to consolidate the strengths and resources of HSIs and other groups committed to increasing the number of Hispanics in all computing areas [3]. Using this core purpose to guide its decisions, CAHSI now consists of structured, academic networks centered on student success in computing and established effective relationships with a wide variety of organizations and partners that have resulted in collective impact through shared resources, adoption and dissemination of effective practices, and policy [6]. The alliance involves over fifteen HSIs as shown in Figure 1 located in areas with high percentages of Hispanics. It is important to note that the terms Hispanic and Latino are used interchangeably throughout this document and refer to the ethnicity of our students.