Program Overview

Introduction to Volaré

Laney College was selected to participate in the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU) Volaré Institute inaugural cohort in 2024. The Volare Institute is a 1-year program offered by HACU with funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Program Details

Through this participation, Laney College assessed the opportunities to become a research enterprise. The college used the Carnegie tool to understand its classification, which is "Associate's Colleges: Mixed Transfer/ Career Technical- High Nontraditional." Laney College does not currently have any research expenditures.

Identified Peer and Aspirational Peer Institutions

As part of this program, Laney's team identified peer and aspirational peer institutions using the Carnegie Classification Tool and the Higher Education Research & Development (HERD) Survey.

Volaré Team

Laney's Volaré Team consisted of three members:

• Dr. Lily Espinoza, Vice President of Student Services
• Clifton Coleman, Senior Research and Planning Analyst
• Danitza Lopez, ESOL Tenured Faculty

Volaré Presentation

The Volaré team attended an in-person Volaré conference in San Diego and presented their research findings. Throughout the Volaré project, the team met regularly with their cohort and mentors, receiving research tools to analyze and assess their capacity to become a research enterprise.

Resources

The resources received during the Volaré project include:

• RSS Self-Assessment
• Faculty Survey
• Faculty Workload Assessment
• Semi-Structured Interview Assessment

Volaré Institute Conference

Laney College participated in the Volaré Institute Conference, held in Spring 2025 in San Diego. The conference focused on advancing equity, innovation, and community-centered practices in higher education, with a theme centered on transformational leadership and student empowerment.

Future Collaboration

The work begun through the Volaré Institute will continue through a collaboration with Santa Barbara City College and subsequent conference presentations. Updates will follow at a later time.