Written by Marcela G. Cuellar, Ph.D., AAHHE member

The Top 100 Schools featured in this month’s issue demonstrate a strong commitment to advancing Latinx/a/o access and success. Many on these lists are Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs), enrolling at least 25% Latinx/a/o undergraduates and 50% low-income students. Many others are emerging HSIs with 15-24% Latinx/a/o undergraduate enrollments, indicating they are on their way to becoming HSIs in the near future. 

Emerging HSIs are in unique positions to envision what becoming an HSI means for their campus and intentionally enhance servingness for Latinx/a/o students and their local communities. Part of my research considers the experiences and outcomes of students at emerging HSIs. As a professor at UC Davis, an emerging HSI recognized among the top schools in several categories, I have been part of larger conversations on how the university can better support Latinx/a/o students now and into the future. From these experiences, there are clear lessons for the potential of emerging HSIs to intentionally advance Latinx/a/o student access and success as they progress towards becoming HSIs.

Consistent Growth of Emerging HSIs

The number of emerging HSIs has grown substantially over the past 10 years. According to Excelencia in Education, there were 393 emerging HSIs in 2020-21 compared to 242 in 2010-11. Even as some emerging HSIs achieve the HSI designation, others move onto this growing list as their Latinx/a/o enrollments increase. Emerging HSIs are now located across 41 states, in comparison to only 26 a decade ago. These patterns reflect the growing representation of Latinx/a/os in communities across the United States and enrollments in colleges and universities near these communities. The prominence of emerging HSIs and HSIs, is an opportunity to redesign institutions that are more responsive to the needs of Latinx/a/o students and communities.

First Consejo: Adopt Culturally Responsive and Student-Centered Practices

Although many emerging HSIs are recognized for providing access and conferring degrees to more Latinx/a/o students, these institutions can further excel by incorporating practices that are culturally responsive and student-centered across various activities. This includes enhancing recruitment and outreach and improving student experiences and retention, identified as key structures for servingness at HSIs.

Serving Latinx/a/o students and communities begins way before a student chooses to enroll at an institution. Recruitment and outreach practices are often the first points of contact institutions have with Latinx/a/o students and as a result, should reflect an understanding of, and commitment to, supporting these students and families. Emerging HSIs need to consider how to connect with students and their families prior to applying and throughout the decision-making process, given that selecting a college is often a familial decision for many Latinx/a/o students. This may include offering outreach for families, bringing students and families to campus, providing college information in multiple languages, and hiring admissions and financial aid staff who are culturally responsive to the needs of this community. Emerging HSIs should further share information about the various programs that can facilitate Latinx/a/o students’ transition, support their academic success, and make them feel welcome on campus, which helps convey the institution’s commitment to their success. These culturally responsive practices in outreach and recruitment are especially important given the declines in Latinx/a/o postsecondary enrollments throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

Beyond access, ensuring that Latinx/a/o students feel validated and supported is essential to retention and student success. Emerging HSIs should thus consider how Latinx/a/o students experience the campus and identify gaps in services and educational outcomes. Some of my research shows that Latinx/a/o students may encounter affirming and marginalizing experiences at emerging HSIs, emphasizing the importance of gathering student perspectives that can uncover these more complex views. Several Latinx/a/o students may also feel invisible or invalidated based on various intersecting social identities. Recent studies in an AERA Open special topic collection I co-edited with Dr. Gina A. Garcia, Intersectionality in Hispanic-Serving Institutions: Understanding the Complexities among Latinxs and BIPOC in HSIs, highlight the multiple ways that students feel marginalized in spaces that inadvertently disregard that Latinx/a/o students are not a monolithic group. These articles are open access and useful resources on how emerging HSIs can support Latinx/a/o students more holistically.

Second Consejo: Establish a Plan Centered on Servingness and Transformation

Emerging HSIs should also actively involve multiple stakeholders in conversations about becoming HSIs at different stages of this trajectory. When I started working at UC Davis in 2014, the campus offered a series of HSI forums to inform its members and surrounding community about its HSI aspirations. These forums presented information about the HSI designation, institutional data on Latinx/a/o student enrollment and retention, and initiatives aimed at supporting Latinx/a/o access and success. Students, staff, faculty, alumni, and community members attended these sessions and shared their own critiques and recommendations for how the campus could better support Latinx/a/o students, staff, and faculty. These exchanges foster learning from these valuable perspectives, and the development of authentic partnerships to create HSI goals that are responsive to the needs of students and the community.

Informing the public and listening to stakeholders, however, is just the start. At UC Davis, for example, these collaborative conversations continued when the chancellor charged an HSI Task Force - comprised of administrators, faculty, staff and student representatives - to define HSI success in connection to the university’s research and land-grant missions. The Task Force produced a visionary report outlining HSI goals and moved into an Implementation Phase to develop activities aligned with these goals. Information on these activities is available on the university website. Keeping the rest of the campus community and public at large up to date on HSI initiatives allows for greater buy-in across the campus and integration of these goals across various other institutional efforts. Larger scale buy-in from different units and individuals on campus can, in turn, facilitate transformation across the campus.

Ideas for becoming an HSI can often be found in the knowledge and insights of students and the community. By adopting more culturally responsive student-centered practices and engaging the broader community on HSI goals, emerging HSIs can authentically transform their institutions. 

Author Bio

Marcela G. Cuellar, PhD is an associate professor in the School of Education at the University of California, Davis. Her research examines postsecondary equity with a focus on Latinx/a/o student experiences and outcomes at Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) and emerging HSIs. Email: marcuellar@ucdavis.edu Phone: (310) 806-0093