What Latino Students Value About HSIs

What do Latino students value about Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs)? According to our recent interviews and research, they value culturas, comunidad, and intención. Latino students notice when their college and university academic programming and services celebrate Hispanic and Latino cultures, nurture bonds among and service to the Hispanic community, and demonstrate the institution’s intention to serve Latino students.

Culturas, comunidad, and intención emerged as central themes for our forthcoming report, A Profile of Hispanic-Serving Institutions. The report is part of a series, along with two parallel profiles on Tribal Colleges and Universities and Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

The series was developed to help providers of services better understand the needs of these institutions. The profiles are based on current literature, government and advocacy organization publications, and conversations with faculty, staff, and students. A special emphasis of this series of profiles is opportunities and challenges of digital learning at each institutional type.

What services does a Hispanic-Serving Institution actually provide?

The United States Department of Education defines an institution as Hispanic serving if it is an accredited, nonprofit, degree-granting institution with 25 percent or more of the student body identifying as Hispanic/Latino and enrolled as undergraduate full-time equivalent (FTE) students. Additionally, 50 percent or more of the students receive financial aid through a federal program. The number of HSIs grew from 189 in 1994 and to over 600 in 2023, enrolling more than two-thirds of all Hispanic undergraduates.

However, the “serving” part of the designation is misleading, as nothing in it refers to what the institution actually does with or for its Latino students, or if those activities are effective. Unlike other MSIs such as HBCUs and TCUs, HSIs were not established with the mission to serve the educational needs of the Latino community. For this reason, an institution may meet enrollment requirements to be an HSI but not be required to provide services for or preserve the culture of Latino students.

Excelencia in Education’s Seal of Excelencia encourages HSIs to go beyond enrollment numbers by analyzing the data, practices, and leadership in regard to an institution’s financial support, retention and transfer, graduation, representation of Latinos in the institution’s administration, faculty, and staff, and an institutional culture of serving Latino students. The Seal of Excelencia has been awarded to 39 institutions with several more in the process of earning the designation.

In developing A Profile of Hispanic-Serving Institutions, we interviewed students, faculty, and academic leaders at HSIs and determined that, while accountability is a key factor for institutional relationships with government and nonprofit programs, it does not characterize the experience of students at HSIs. Our research uncovered that students at HSIs valued experiences that celebrate Hispanic and Latino culturas (cultures), nurture bonds among and service to the Hispanic comunidad (community), and demonstrated the institution’s intención (intention) to serve Latino students.

Culturas 

Effective HSIs recognize the role cultural relevance plays in student learning. Many of them offer classes, programs, and activities that resonate with the diverse backgrounds of Hispanic students. Courses regarding Hispanic/Latino studies and Latino-focused student organizations can help Hispanic students feel included in their college community and make those desired connections with students from similar ethnic backgrounds.

Another factor in cultivating students’ sense of belonging is student-faculty interaction. Effective HSIs strive to enhance diversity among faculty and staff, providing students with role models who share similar cultural backgrounds.

Regardless of whether students feel represented by the faculty or not, overall positive student-faculty interactions are just as important for a student’s sense of belonging. Providing a space for Hispanic students to exist culturally promotes a sense of belonging and can lead to their academic and social success.

Promoting leadership development keeps students involved and connected to their college until completion. Student leadership also increases educational outcomes and adds to the students’ life experience. HSIs promote leadership development through fraternities and sororities, internships, and student groups and clubs.

Comunidad

In order to help students feel connected and part of a larger community, HSIs often have vibrant Latino student organizations and celebrate Latino cultural traditions. Latino student groups and clubs are often centered on Greek organizations; cultural, religious, and geographic communities; advocacy and scholarship groups; and pre-professional organizations.

Organizations such as HISPA (Hispanics Inspiring Students’ Performance and Achievement) and Latinx Leads work at the national and institution levels to provide leadership training and opportunity for Latino college students. Programs such as these increase a sense of belonging, which leads to increased retention and graduation.

During our research, student interviewee Marshal Saludo told us about joining the Latino Business Association on his campus: “That helps people with just networking, [and] gaining some experience in the professional world . . . . It makes me feel more confident knowing that somebody with similar backgrounds comes up to the same spot I’m going to go.”

Another form of campus engagement that can help Hispanic students’ sense of belonging is cultural celebrations, including Hispanic Heritage Month. These types of events demonstrate to Hispanic students that the institution values, affirms, and embraces them as an important population in higher education.

A type of cultural celebration that is growing within HSIs goes by many names, Florecemos, Celebración de Graduación, and Latino Graduation Celebration. This is a graduation ceremony tailored for Latino students and their families. This is a time when Latino students get to celebrate their academic achievements and their culture with friends and family. These celebrations and organizations help promote a sense of belonging to their Hispanic students and in turn contribute to the success of their Hispanic student body.

Intención

Through intentional supports and programs, students increase their self-advocacy, self-efficacy, and agency. This is why targeted support services and mentoring support are important for Hispanic student success.

A support service that can make a positive impact on Hispanic student success is academic and mentoring support services such as Puente, a program that services middle schools, high schools, and community colleges throughout the state of California. Its mission is to help increase the numbers of underrepresented students in four-year institutions and to help them earn their degrees and return to their communities as leaders and mentors.

Having programs like Puente creating a space for Hispanic students to be mentored and educated not only prepares them to integrate into higher education but also builds their sense of belonging in higher education.

The opportunity HSIs have to support every learner

HSIs are on the verge of representing a quarter or more of all degree-granting institutions of higher education in the U.S. The growth of HSIs is a direct result of the growth of the Latino population in the U.S., which stood at 19.1 percent in the 2020 census. That number is expected to reach 25 percent in the next generation.

The growth in HSIs is an opportunity for those institutions to become more intentional in serving their Latino students through support services, culturally relevant education, and cultural community events. This growth is also an opportunity for state and federal government agencies to increase funding to expand Latino access to higher education, particularly through digital learning-supported programs and degree pathways.

Editor’s note: The material in this article is excerpted or adapted from A Profile of Hispanic-Serving Institutions, which was written by Jasmine Baldwin, Every Learner Student Intern and Graduate of Sam Houston State University, and Patricia O’Sullivan, Manager of Content Development and Special Projects at Every Learner Everywhere.