Manuel J. Fernós, President of the Inter American University of Puerto Rico (IAUPR), was elected President to the Hispanic Educational Telecommunications System (HETS) during the Board of Directors meeting that took place in New York City’s Herbert H. Lehman College, on June 17th and 18th, 2003. Also elected was the new Vice President, James Lyons, President of the University of California-Dominguez Hills. Likewise, Antonio Pérez, Borough of Manhattan Community College President, and Dolores Fernández, Hostos Community College President were re-elected as Board Secretary and Board Treasurer, respectively.
Currently, IAUPR houses the HETS Consortium headquarters, in its main offices. IAUPR became a Consortium affiliate in 1998 and has since been actively involved in the organizations initiatives and projects. Since 2000, IAUPR co-hosted the Board of Directors meetings celebrated in Puerto Rico. In addition, IAUPR’s leadership in the Latin American and Caribbean Network has allowed it to sign a collaboration agreement between the two organizations. In addition, around 40 IAUPR professors have taken advantage of the on-line Learning Workshop offered by the University of Texas-Pan American, a HETS affiliate institution renown in the field of distance education.
Mr. Fernós becomes the fourth President to lead the HETS Board of Directors. The earlier board presidents were José F. Méndez, President of the Ana G. Méndez University System, first HETS President and one of the founders of the HETS Consortium; Richard Peck, former President of the University of New Mexico; Norman I. Maldonado, former President of the University of Puerto Rico, who presided the Board from 1998 to 2001; and Ricardo Fernández, Lehman College, CUNY, who presided from 2001 until 2003.
HETS represents the first telecommunications consortium to serve the Hispanic community through distance education and it has the support of 18 autonomous higher education member institutions in the United States, Puerto Rico and Colombia, all certified by diverse academic accreditation agencies. For more information about this topic, please contact Nitza M. Hernández, HETS Executive Director and Learning Anywhere Anytime Partnership (LAAP) Project Director, through her email: nhernandez@virtualplaza.org or by calling the Consortium offices at 787-766-1912, extensions 2221 or 2222