NIU is hosting its second annual conference to investigate the problems faced by Latinos in higher education and look at the recruitment and retention of Latinos.

The conference titled “Latino Education Policy in Illinois: Results and Ideas for Change” is the brain child of Manny Sanchez, member of the Board of Trustees and owner of the nation’s largest minority-owned law firm.

“[The conference will] investigate the root cause of some of the statistics of the failure of Hispanics to secure degrees from four-year public and private institutions,” Sanchez said.

Sanchez said that as the second-ever Latino chairman of a four-year institution, he felt responsible to address this sad situation, especially since Hispanics are the fastest growing minority in the United States.

The conference is a continuum of one held a year and a half ago, and Sanchez said he hopes it will answer some of the questions raised by its predecessor about Latinos and higher education.

Sanchez and NIU President John Peters will be making the welcoming speech at the conference.

Louis Tornatzky, vice president of research at the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute, and Roberto Suro, director of the Pew Hispanic Center, will be the two solo speakers at the conference.

Attendees will choose from two workshops in the morning and two in the afternoon.

Sylvia Feuntes, director of University Resources for Latinos, will be speaking at the one of the afternoon workshops.

“I’m excited because we get to showcase what URL is doing to increase retention rate for Latinos, ” Feuntes added.

Feuntes who attended the first conference said that she was surprised by the diversity of the audience and said the conference was very needed.