Student Success Starts with Organizational Change

The most innovative change strategy happening in U.S. higher education isn't at Harvard or Stanford; it's at community colleges in Colorado and public universities in Wisconsin. Change is happening at Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs), rural institutions, and colleges and universities that are not on any ranking list. And the motivation for this change is an increasingly diverse student population and a desire to serve them. All postsecondary institutions care about student success, but the approach to enhance their success varies dramatically. I argue that a student success agenda starts with organizational change, not individual programs or initiatives that never get institutionalized.   

The HSI movement: Strategies driving change at hispanic-serving institutions by Dr. Gina Ann Garcia.

As an organizational change scholar, I write about how historically white institutions become people of color institutions, whether by intention, design, or circumstance. In most cases it’s the latter, with over 600 colleges and universities becoming compositionally diverse Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) by circumstance, and mostly as a result of the region in which they are located and the admissions practices they espouse. The growth in the number of HSIs is positively correlated with the increase in the number of Latine/x students entering postsecondary education, but the institutional response to this change has not kept pace with the growth of this population. And since colleges and universities were not designed for students of color and low-income students, HSIs, MSIs, and broad access institutions must adapt to their new student population. To be clear, adaptation is not about being inclusive and creating a sense of belonging, because inclusivity and belonging do not require organizational change. In some cases, inclusivity and belonging are performative, with educators and leaders trying to convince ourselves and our students, “we are inclusive, because we say we are.”     

What we have learned from the DEI movement is that most campuses have not adapted to their diverse populations, but rather built offices, hired DEI staff, and created isolated programs to serve diverse students. From a change perspective, these are first-order change efforts that do not change the culture or ways we deliver education. And what was disheartening is how quickly DEI efforts disappeared overnight following 47’s infamous Dear College letter, that I remind you had no teeth and was not policy or law, yet institutions folded faster than a beach chair at sundown.

Alternatively, some institutions have made substantial changes, and in some cases second-order changes, that have resulted in shifts in the culture and logics of the institution, all with the goal of producing greater student success for their increasingly diverse population. So, what can we learn from these institutions about organizational change? There are hundreds if not thousands of books and articles about organizational change, so what makes The HSI Movement: Strategies Driving Change at Hispanic Serving Institutions unique?

In the book I argue that some colleges and universities are intentionally adapting to an increasing Latine/x and low income student population and provide empirically grounded examples of the people and levers that drive this change and the barriers they face. Some of the storytellers in the book used Title III and Title V grant funds to support organizational change and advance an HSI identity, but not all. And yes, those grant funded initiatives mattered a lot, as they often allowed educators to envision new futures while piloting and implementing strategies to achieve these futures. But waiting for the next big grant shouldn’t deter you from trying to make the institution better for Latine/x students, or other students of color. Moreover, the federal government’s detrimental disinvestment from HSIs and other MSIs should not be the end of a campus’s effort to better serve its growing population of Latine/x students. The HSI Movement highlights the efforts of 29 campuses.

But the argument is much deeper than that, as I stress that activists and organizers and change agents within the organization are responsible for this change. Changing organizations from within does not require power and resources, although they help; it takes dedicated individuals who can dream and envision a new future. The HSI Movement elevates the voices of those activists and likens their efforts to a social movement that occurs within institutions. For the former organizers turned administrators, this book will speak to you because I argue that the activists inside the institution can and are changing it. While the book provides numerous examples of the actions, efforts, and processes of change taking place, it more importantly elevates the voices of the activists doing the work. Some people will read the book and get ideas for their campus change efforts, while others will read it and feel seen and validated, and both may exist simultaneously for others.  

Much of my thinking in this book has been motivated by abolitionists and freedom dreamers who believe deeply in envisioning new worlds in order to change them. In The HSI Movement, I argue that changing your organization to better serves Latine/x students is hard, but in community we can do it. Tapping into abolitionist ideologies produces a different approach to change than let’s say, organizational theory. The former says you have to envision, while the latter says you have to manage culture, power, politics, resources, and human dynamics. But many members of the organization do not feel like they have the means to manage culture, power, politics, resources, and human dynamics, and in particular they do not hold positional power to do this. But every single person in the organization can envision and manifest something new. And that’s what The HSI Movement calls on you to do: dream, envision, manifest, and become. I invite you on the journey with me to rethink student success through the lens of abolitionist-inspired organizational change.