Becoming HSI-Minded: A Call to Action in a Time of Legal & Political Attacks

For the last 30 years Congress has supported enrollment-based Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs), including Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs). These institutions, which not only enroll a significant number of students of color and low-income students but also promote their academic success and upward mobility, have benefitted from steady appropriations by way of competitive grants. But HSIs have found themselves under attack as the current administration pushes for race-neutral policies, with the Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel’s most recent memo labeling HSIs and enrollment-based MSIs as “unconstitutional.”

Graphic from Canva.com

To be clear, MSI programs remain intact per legislation that was approved by Congress. Moreover, the courts have not found them to be unconstitutional, meaning the most recent memo is not a legal document, but rather a political statement about what this administration believes and values. Unfortunately for enrollment-based MSIs, this political document carries weight with federal agencies, and specifically the Department of Education that oversees the competitive grant programs for HSIs/MSIs. The memo is another example of the ways our Constitution has failed us, with the current administration having complete power over Congress and the courts, and utter disregard for the checks-and-balance system our democracy has relied on for 250 years.

The message for HSIs and enrollment-based MSIs is clear: Our servingness work must continue! I’ve been thinking a lot about Dr. Estela Bensimon’s work on equity-mindedness. She developed the concept of equity-mindedness to counter the framing of students of color as deficient because of their backgrounds, personal circumstances, and work habits. Instead, she calls on practitioners to reframe their mental map of attitudes and beliefs about these students. She argues that equity-minded leaders understand the ways institutions of higher education have historically, socially, and politically discriminated against students of color and they actively challenge race-neutral policies and practices. Moreover, equity-minded practitioners acknowledge racialized inequities, know that most educational practices are race-neutral, and actively take responsibility to address and counter inequities.       

Borrowing from this concept, I argue that practitioners must become HSI-minded, which is an active stance, approach, and viewing of HSIs as more than an enrollment threshold. Becoming HSI-minded can help HSI practitioners survive the current attacks on HSIs, knowing that regardless of who is in political power, the practice of serving Latine/x students is at that core of what we do as educators and leaders in HSIs.

What Does It Mean to Be HSI‑Minded?

HSI‑mindedness is a cognitive understanding of what it means to be an HSI beyond enrollment thresholds, federal eligibility, and grant-seeking and -getting. Learning is a core practice for becoming HSI-minded, including engagement with HSI scholarship, books, and the Qué Pasa, HSIs? podcast. Practitioners must also explore best practices and participate in training and development opportunities, including those elevated by organizations such as AHSIE and ESCALA.

HSI-mindedness is the recognition that servingness is an active decision to create systems and environments that respond to the racialized and linguistic needs of Latine/x students. HSI-minded practitioners are willing to confront uncomfortable truths about who is being served well and who is not, and actively work to create educational systems and institutional cultures that center the lived realities of Latine/x students. To be HSI‑minded is to understand that HSIs were not created to celebrate demographic diversity, but to redress structural inequities in access, institutional funding, student experiences, and overall success. It is to see Latine/x students not as enrollment numbers but as whole people navigating institutions that were not originally built for them. Most importantly, to be HSI‑minded is to continue doing this work even when the political climate makes it hard to be an unapologetic HSI.

The current political environment makes it harder to explicitly name the populations facing inequities, to design programs that target specific communities, and to justify the very existence of HSIs. But the inequities that Latine/x students faced in the late 1980s and 1990s when HSIs were created have not disappeared. Latine/x students are still disproportionately first‑generation and low income, still navigating linguistic and cultural barriers, still experiencing racism and microaggressions, still underrepresented in graduate education and amongst faculty, and still attending institutions with fewer resources. Becoming HSI‑minded is more urgent now than ever. Shifting our mindsets towards servingness is the most effective way to navigate and survive the current political climate. The goal is no longer to solely develop programs that better serve Latine/x students but to enhance our thinking, action, and engagement in decision-making and pedagogical practices that will sustain our commitment to servingness through these dark times.

How Do We Become HSI‑Minded?

I offer four mindset shifts that HSI leaders and educators can make with the goal of remaining committed to servingness.

#1 Shift from an Eligibility Mindset to a Servingness Consciousness

Moving forward, we cannot view HSI as an enrollment, eligibility, and grant-seeking and -getting construct. Moreover, we can no longer view HSI-ness as a series of grant-funded support programs for Latine/x students. To be HSI‑minded is to understand servingness as an organizational change approach that requires active practices and policies that address inequities in experiences and outcomes of Latine/x students.

#2 Acknowledge that Inequities Persist, Regardless of What the Federal Government Believes

HSI-minded educators and leaders must continue to access data and commit to equity as a part of their servingness efforts. We cannot address what we cannot see, and data help us to see the ways various groups experience inequities. It is not illegal or unconstitutional to disaggregate data by race/ethnicity, gender, and/or income. HSI‑minded practitioners must continue to identify equity gaps and focus on the structures, policies, and classroom practices that produces inequitable experiences and outcomes. Per the SFFA vs. Harvard affirmative action case, it is also not illegal to create programs that target specific groups, as long as the programs are not exclusionary. HSI-minded educators and leaders know this but also focus on organizational transformation with the goal of creating environments that are good for all. Being HSI-minded and data-conscious is about accountability and reflection.

#3 Practice Servingness Through Everyday Decisions & Actions

Political attacks on HSIs/MSIs cannot stop HSI-minded educators and leaders from practicing servingness every day. HSI‑mindedness includes: (1) redesigning syllabi and assignments in order to center the lived realities of Latine/x students, (2) supporting students’ cultural and linguistic needs, including those most affected by ICE raids, deportation, and violence, (3) creating welcoming spaces and programs, (4) making decisions and allocating resources to advance servingness, regardless of eligibility and grants, and (5) including servingness in missions and strategic plans. Servingness is not a programmatic intervention; it is a cultural shift in the way HSIs provide education.

The political climate is challenging what it means to be an HSI/enrollment-based MSI, but it cannot stop people from becoming HSI‑minded and servingness-centered. HSI‑mindedness is an individual stance rooted in responsibility, consciousness, and the belief that Latine/x students deserve institutions that see them and honor them. In this moment of uncertainty, becoming HSI‑minded is not just a strategy, it is an act of resistance, a declaration of purpose, and a recommitment to the transformative vision that gave rise to HSIs in the first place. Pa’lante!!