Moving from Enrollment-based HSIs to Mission-based HSIs

On September 10, 2025, our MSI community’s biggest fear came true as the Department of Education announced it would end $350 million in discretionary funding to enrollment-based Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs). Enrollment-based MSIs are institutions that do not have a distinct mission to serve their stated population but have reached an arbitrary enrollment threshold making them eligible for federal funding. Enrollment-based MSIs include:

• Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI)

• Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institutions (AANAPISI)

• Predominantly Black Institutions (PBI)

• Native American-Serving Nontribal Institutions (NASNTI)

• Alaska Native & Native Hawaiian-Serving Institutions (ANNHSI).

Ironically, five days later the Department of Education announced it would make a one-time investment of $495 million in mission-based MSIs including Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) and Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCU). These decisions sent a clear message to the MSI community: enrollment thresholds are racial quotas (they aren’t) and therefore discriminatory (wrong again), while historic missions are acceptable. In fact, the announcements stated that HBCUs and TCCUs offer “unique and historic contributions” while “racial quotas in the HSI programs are unconstitutional.” Regardless of the validity of these statements, this is our reality with the current administration.

The Congressional Hispanic Conference, the only caucus of Hispanic Republican lawmakers in Congress, sent a letter to Linda McMahon expressing concern about the decision to defund HSIs stating that they do in fact serve their regions and local communities, which are often predominantly Latine, as part of their mission. I agree with the letter, and the data show that HSIs are advancing degree completion for Latines, including STEM degrees, and supporting their social an economic mobility, but I question the assertion that it is in the mission of HSIs to do so. Institutions that enroll a large percentage of Latine students (60-95% Latines) because they are situated in predominantly Latine regions (50-90% Latines) should graduate a fair share of the country’s Latine students. It’s simple math. But it doesn’t mean it is in their historic mission to do so. In fact, in a previous blog post Dr. Zaragoza and I questioned the historic mission of HSIs that have been recognized as “excellent” HSIs.

Comparatively, most TCCUs clearly state that their mission is to serve the Indigenous people they were founded to serve. For example, The College of Menominee Nation states:

As a Land Grant institution of higher education chartered by the Menominee People, the College of Menominee Nation infuses learning with American Indian culture and prepares students for leadership, careers, and advanced studies in a multicultural world. The College commits to research and promotion, perpetuation, and nurturance of American Indian language and scholarship. 

Similarly, Diné College centers Diné people in its mission:

Rooted in Diné language and culture, our mission is to advance quality post-secondary student learning and development to ensure the well-being of the Diné People.

Diné bina’nitin t’áá íiyisíí á siláago binahjį’, ołta’í na’nitin náasjį’ yee ínááhwiidooł’áłígíí yéego bidziilgo ádiilnííł, áko Diné nilínígíí t’áá ałtso yá’át’éehgo bee bił nahaz’áa dooleeł niidzin.

HBCUs also commit to their organizational identity within their mission statements, while acknowledging that they enroll a diverse population of students. Bluefield State University states:

The mission of Bluefield State University, a historically black institution, is to prepare students for diverse professions, informed citizenship, community involvement, and public service in an ever-changing global society by providing an affordable, accessible opportunity for public higher education through certificate, associate, bachelor, and master degree programs.

Similarly, Dillard University’s mission is simple:

Dillard University is a historically Black institution that cultivates leaders who live ethically, think and communicate precisely, and act courageously to make the world a better place. 

To be clear, the mission statement is not the only indicator of adequately serving students. But the mission matters, especially since many colleges and universities claim to be “mission-driven” and decision-makers, including trustees, often refer to the mission as they make sense of their identity. And research has shown that most HSIs do not commit to being HSIs in their mission statement. Graduating Latine students is important. Supporting their economic and social mobility is important. But without a stated mission to do so, the success of Latines is largely their success, not the HSIs that enroll them. I’ve said it a thousand times; I’ve written it just as many. Serving is more than enrollment and graduation, and it’s definitely more than federal eligibility and federal grant getting. And despite the fact that I am deeply concerned about the economic loss to HSIs and the people in them because of the cuts to Title V, Part A and B (Title III, Part F grants did not get cut because they are mandatory appropriations, not discretionary), I think our next steps as an HSI community is to make it our mission to serve Latine students—and we can do that without federal grants.

What I have learned from emerging HSIs (15-24% Latine enrollment), striving HSIs (less than 15%), and non-grant funded eligible HSIs is that you don’t need federal eligibility or HSIs grants to commit to serving Latine students. The grants matter and they have made a difference, but I’m challenging us to move beyond those grants and those enrollment thresholds and to instead embrace servingness as our core identity and mission.

So, what are our next steps as an HSI/MSI community?

1. We should put pressure on our campus presidents and HACU to file a lawsuit demanding that Title V, Part A & Part B funds be reinstated. With this administration, lawsuits are the most essential tool of resistance we have. HACU, alongside LatinoJustice PRLDEF, was successfully granted party intervention in Tennessee and Students for Fair Admissions lawsuit claiming HSIs are discriminatory. But suing Linda McMahon to reinstate the loss of $350 million to enrollment-based MSIs should also be a strategy.

2. Commit to becoming a mission-based HSI/MSI. If it is in our core mission to serve Latine students, families, and communities, similar to HBCUs and TCCUs, then the federal government can’t argue that HSIs are discriminatory.

3. Commit to servingness with an intentional focus on Latine students in our academic practices including the curriculum, teaching, research and service to the community. Servingness is about hiring faculty and staff and administrators who come from the same background as the students. It's about making our commitment to serve Latine students part of our mission and our strategic purpose. And yes, servingness is about disrupting the systems of oppression that keep our Latine students from thriving. There is extensive research that shows that racism and sexism and heterosexism and heterogenderism and ableism and so many more isms live in HSIs.

One final note: Fuck ICE! Protecting our students and our communities from unlawful kidnapping should also be a priority for all HSIs!!