The President of the Ana G. Méndez University System, José F. Méndez, was elected President of the Board of Directors of the Hispanic Educational Telecommunications System during the Thirteenth Annual Summer Board Meeting of the organization in New York.
By 1993, Méndez took the pioneering initiative of gathering the institutions that today make up the HETS Consortium, as the first educational telecommunications consortium constituted by colleges and universities from Puerto Rico and the United States. Since its inception, President Méndez had the vision of allying AGMUS’s efforts with other institutions in Puerto Rico, as well as other Hispanic Serving Institutions in the US, in an effort to widen educational opportunities and access to postsecondary education through the use of the technological modalities of distance education. The HETS Consortium promotes the use of information resources such as the Internet, interactive multimedia technologies, and videoconferences, among others.
“For the Ana G. Mendez University, it is an honor to lead HETS and continue harmonizing efforts to reach our Hispanic communities in the US”, expressed President Mendez. This year, Mr. Mendez, as Chair of the HETS Board, will continue the already initiated work agenda of designing a strategic plan for the organization.
Collaborating with Mendez in the HETS Board of Directors will be Dr. Antonio Perez, President of the Borough of Manhattan Community College, elected as Vice President. Other board officials elected include Dr. Carolyn Williams, President of the Bronx Community College (secretary); Manuel Fernós, President of the Inter American University of Puerto Rico (treasurer); and Douglas Young, from the University of Texas at Brownsville, and Ruth Ann Balla, from Miami Dade College, as Southwest and Southeast regional representatives, respectively.