Students received updates on the UCLA Hispanic-serving institution initiative at a Feb. 18 town hall.

Around 70 students and staff attended the event in the Bruin Viewpoint Room in Ackerman Union. The event featured a student panel, updates on UCLA’s HSI status and information on the Latinx Success Center.

The event aimed to provide transparency to the Latinx community on campus, said Undergraduate Students Association Council General Representative Diego Bollo, whose office helped to organize the event.

“We hope that there is urgency by administrators from all departments to continue using their voice to allow students to speak directly and hold the leadership at our campus accountable,” said Bollo, a third-year labor studies and political science student.

The event began with the panel answering questions from attendees about the panelists’ personal lives and their thoughts on campus administration and national politics.

The panel – which included a graduate student, a transfer student and a student in a STEM field – was chosen with diversity in mind, Bollo said. The planning committee wanted to focus on groups that lacked Latinx representation or have been systemically ignored, added Tania Ramirez, a panelist and event organizer from Bollo’s office.

“We live in a world where we don’t know what’s going on because there’s not representation in our field,” said Ramirez, a fourth-year chemistry student.

Following the panel, the event transitioned to a presentation that involved several faculty members. The presentation centered around increased outreach efforts for Latinx students, enrollment numbers and Latinx success center updates.

UCLA HSI Initiatives Director Elizabeth Gonzalez said during the presentation that people should stay informed about the strength of HSI and lean on other community members to reduce panic.

“We need to educate ourselves,” Gonzalez said “We need to lean on each other. We need to have a unified trust.”

Gary Clark, the associate vice chancellor for enrollment management, and Director of Undergraduate Admission Ffiona Rees gave a presentation on enrollment information. Rees said Latinx enrollment has increased over the past 10 years, even though UCLA does not use affirmative action in admissions decisions.

[Related: Department of Justice investigates UCLA for alleged use of affirmative action]

Clark said the Enrollment Management Office aims to increase the number of Latinx students further through outreach efforts. To be formally designated as a HSI, 25% of the university’s undergraduate students need to identify as Latinx, according to the UCLA HSI website.

Amada Armenta, the faculty director of Latino Public Policy Institute, announced the university will also create a Latino Policy Day on May 15 to feature a panel of Latinx students who have worked on policy.

Claudia Salcedo, the director of the Center for Community College Partnerships, said during a presentation that the Latinx Success Center will open March 31. Salcedo had previously told the Daily Bruin that the center would open in January 2025.

Denisse Rodriguez, a third-year global studies and public affairs student who attended the event, said it showed momentum toward creating connections throughout the Latinx community.

“We can build something that is stronger, something we haven’t had before at UCLA,” she said.