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Every year, most public universities and universities in California are eligible to provide additional federal funding for simply reasons. They enroll many Latino students.
The federal government secures grants from universities that classify millions of dollars in grants each year as Hispanic service agencies. In total, the University of California and Community College have received more than $600 million in HSI grants since federal funding began in 1995.
California, which has a large Latino population, has the largest HSI campus in the country, with over a quarter of the 602 HSI in the country. This includes all but five of the University of California’s nine undergraduate campuses and one of California State’s 22 campuses, as well as the majority of the state’s community colleges.
But now, federal funding to campus is being threatened by lawsuits filed by Tennessee and students for fair admission.
A lawsuit filed last month in US District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee argued that the standard to become an HSI is unconstitutional and discriminatory against other ethnic groups, and that all universities that serve low-income students should be allowed to apply for grants currently available to HSIS, regardless of their ability to attack any ethnic target.
The university is subject to HSI designation if it maintains at least 25% of Latino enrollment over two years and at least half of its students are low-income. This designation allows them to apply to competitive grant programs. The money is intended to be spent on programs that could benefit all students, not just Latino students, advocates said.
The HSI grant has enabled many California campuses to improve student support services, add counseling and student retention programs, and provide faculty training on how to teach students from diverse backgrounds.
“Many of these campuses rely on HSI funding and that could be stripped away, which would result in critical infrastructure losses,” said Cristian Ulizes Reyes, a graduate student at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.
HSIS supporters have anticipated a challenge to the program as President Trump took office and ordered him to end his diversity, equity and inclusive program.
“This lawsuit feels like the culmination of all these horrors,” said Deborah Santiago, CEO of Excellencia in Education, a nonprofit focused on the success of Latino students in higher education.
The lawsuit appoints the US Department of Education and US Secretary of Education Linda McMahon as defendants. It is not clear whether the department will fight the lawsuit. The Ministry of Education did not reply to requests for comment.
Edward Blum, a conservative activist and student with fair admissions for students, emailed the explicit Latino registration threshold requirement for HSI designations is illegal in his view.
“That means that otherwise qualified agencies will be denied access to federal support by millions just because there is no designated racial mix,” he said. “It’s a racial preference that disguises education policies.”
As an HSI, Cal State LA is eligible for additional federal funding.
(Robert Gautier/Los Angeles Times)
To ensure that the lawsuit works to pass the court system, Santiago expects grant applications to continue, at least this year, and it expects that institutions that do not have an HSI fund will continue to be able to use it.
Cal State Channel Islands recently held its 2025 SíSe Pudo Certification Ceremony, the annual graduation ceremony held on campus. Achieving and maintaining the HSI designation is likely to help campuses recruit Latino students over the years, said Jessica Lavaliga-Monforti, a university provost.
“Students are familiar with today and want to know which programs are available to support success,” she said.
The campus has received $42 million in HSI-related funding since 2010. This includes grants from the National Science Foundation that HSI is eligible to apply to.
One programme called the CSUCI Initiative to Map Academic Success is set up an entire campus in 2022, aiming to support students struggling academically. Students meet with faculty members at weekly workshops and get back on track. So far, student retention for the program has been 7% higher than its peers, Lavariega Monforti said.
The majority of participating students are Latino, but like many initiatives funded by the HSI grant, they are not exclusive to Latino students.
Cal Poly San Luis Obispo is about to acquire its own HSI rating. Last fall, Latinx enrollment on campus reached 25% for the first time.
If the campus becomes an HSI next year, all CSU campuses will have designations.
Throughout UC, five of the system’s nine faculty campuses are HSIS. Irvine, Merced, Riverside, Santa Barbara, and Santa Cruz. Another Davis achieved eligibility last fall by crossing the 25% threshold for Latino registrations. UC hopes that all campuses will ultimately receive designations including UCLA and UC Berkeley.
Reyes, a graduate student at San Luis Obispo, has completed her bachelor’s degree but hopes that there will be an HSI designation before the campus is applied. He helped start the HSI designation push on campus while working in the Diversity & Inclusion office.
Reyes is a first-generation university student and said connecting with other Latino staff helped him find his way and succeed on campus.
He first enrolled as a biology major, but failed in his class and academic probation in his first year. He then met with a counselor who happened to be a Latina, and urged him to change his major. He also joined Lambda Theta Phi Latin Fraternity, a Latin fraternity who said he became the “backbone” of his time on campus.
However, after learning of the lawsuit, he fears that the campus will not reach that point.
“It felt like an attack would be inevitable, but I actually see it was scary and worrying to me,” he said.
Burke is a reporter for Edsource, a nonpartisan journalism organization that covers California education.
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