Milwaukee Area Technical College is on the brink of joining the nation's growing list of Hispanic-serving institutions, a coveted designation that opens the door to new federal funding.
Colleges achieve the federally designated HSI status when at least 25% of their full-time undergraduate students are Hispanic and at least half of their undergraduates qualify for need-based aid from the U.S. Department of Education.
Institutions are considered emerging HSIs when between 15% to 24% of their full-time undergraduate students are Hispanic — a sign they are on their way to reaching the coveted designation.
As the nation’s Hispanic population grew in recent decades, so too has the number of designated HSIs. Many colleges are striving to obtain this designation — and the greater access to federal grants and the reputational boost that can come with it.
When colleges become HSIs, they can get access to federal funding set aside for these institutions that allow them to expand academic programs, improve student services, train faculty and construct or renovate instructional facilities, among other benefits.
And having HSI status demonstrates a commitment to serving underrepresented populations — which can improve their ability to attract a diverse student body, according to Lisa Alcorta, senior vice president for programs and operations at the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities.
However, for many institutions — particularly ones in regions with smaller Hispanic populations — reaching HSI status can be a long and arduous process.
Milwaukee Area Technical College, an emerging HSI, launched efforts to become a full-fledged HSI in 2018, when 18% of the college’s full-time student population was Hispanic, said Anthony Cruz, president of the Wisconsin-based two-year public college. As of this fall, he said the institution’s full-time Hispanic students account for about 23% of its enrollment — still 2 percentage points short of the threshold.
Striving for HSI status “reflects our commitment to our Hispanic students and showing that that’s something that is one of our priorities as an institution,” Cruz said.
The two-year college has launched several initiatives to improve outreach to the Hispanic community, including forming a committee devoted to that goal and adding scholarship programs.
“I’m pretty optimistic that we can hit that 25% mark by next year, by October of 2025,” Cruz said.
A boom in HSIs
The U.S. Hispanic population reached 62.1 million in 2020 — increasing by more than 11.6 million over the previous decade, according to U.S. Census data. The U.S. Department of Labor predicts Hispanic workers will account for more than 21% of the U.S. labor force by 2030.
The number of Hispanic college students has similarly grown in recent decades. The share of undergraduates who are Hispanic or Latino increased from 11.3% in the 1999-2000 academic year to 20.5% in 2019-20, according to a recent report from the American Council on Education.
These population trends are reflected in the boom in HSIs during the past three decades.
HSIs were formally recognized in 1992 through Title III of the Higher Education Act, according to Postsecondary National Policy Institute. Federal money first started flowing to HSIs in 1995 under the Strengthening Institutions Program — and three years later under Title V of the Higher Education Act.
The government recognized 189 HSIs during that first 1994-95 academic year, Alcorta said. By fall 2014, that number had ballooned to 435. That number jumped again — to 600 — by fall 2023, she said.
In 2022, over 350 four-year colleges were HSIs, compared with a little over 240 two-year institutions, according to data from HACU.
The number of emerging HSIs also grew over the past decade from 310 in 2014 to 412 in 2023, Alcorta said.
The Hispanic demographic shift in some communities like Montgomery County, Maryland, has helped some colleges reach the 25% enrollment threshold.
Montgomery County’s Hispanic population increased significantly over the past four decades — from just under 4% of its population in 1980 to more than 20% in 2021, with more than 211,000 residents identifying as Hispanic, a local planning commission report found.
Amid that population growth, Montgomery College, a community college in Rockville, Maryland, gained HSI status in 2021. Since then, its Hispanic student population has continued to grow, from 26% in fall 2021 to 29% in fall 2023.
The college plans to apply for federal grants geared towards HSIs, it said in a report this year.
It also launched an HSI task force in 2022 that examines ways the college could better serve its growing population, improve student success among that population, and collects data that’s used to develop grant proposals, said Marcus Rosano, a Montgomery College spokesperson.
The college also expanded its services and programs geared toward the Hispanic community — such as providing translation services for Spanish-speakers and offering workforce development and continuing education courses in Spanish, he added.
Striving to reflect the community
As would be expected, HSIs are largely concentrated in states with large Hispanic populations, such as California, Texas, Florida and New York, Alcorta said. But “as Hispanic communities expand across the country, more institutions are gaining HSI status,” she said.
Milwaukee is experiencing these trends.
The city’s population shrank to roughly 561,000 residents in 2023, a 6.3% decline, U.S. Census data shows. But its Hispanic population increased 18.1% during that period, reaching about 124,000 residents.
“Our students are reflecting that trend,” said Cruz.
Cruz wants to ensure that Hispanic individuals in the Milwaukee area get the training they need to achieve success in the workforce and earn the wages needed to provide for their families.
“We’re trying to meet the needs of our community,” he said.
Weber State University, in Utah, is likewise working to become an HSI because it wants its student demographics to align more closely with the makeup of its community, university spokesperson Bryan Magaña said in an email.
The public university’s largest campus is located in Ogden, a city north of Salt Lake City whose Latino and Hispanic populations account for roughly 30% of residents, he said. Yet that same population makes up only roughly 13% of the university’s full-time undergraduate students, Magaña added.
“We see an opportunity to better serve our neighbors in this community, and it’s been on our radar for years,” Magaña said. “It would prove Weber State is a genuine reflection of its community.”
Overcoming challenges
Over the last few years, Wisconsin’s MATC has tried to improve its outreach to the Hispanic community by forming a faculty- and staff-led committee to help design more effective strategies, Cruz said.
The college also hired bilingual recruiters and boosted its English as a Second Language program, he added.
One challenge MATC faces in becoming an HSI is that most of its students attend part time — not full time as the designation requires. Those students often face family and work obligations that make full-time attendance difficult, according to Cruz.
“We’re always trying to get our students to take more credits in order for them to complete at a faster pace, but yet we recognize the fact that students have other things going on in their lives,” said Cruz. “That’s probably the biggest challenge.”
The college is also “trying to remove obstacles and barriers to success that are not necessarily always about the classroom,” he added.
For instance, some students are food insecure, so the college created food pantries at each of its four campuses. The college also offers bus passes and tutoring services, and it employs campus social workers to help meet students’ other nonacademic needs.
Many prospective Hispanic students are first-generation students and face financial barriers to attending college. And many aren’t fully aware of their college options to begin with, Alcorta noted.
Colleges can overcome those challenges by partnering with high schools, offering bilingual outreach, creating scholarships and engaging with various subgroups at local events, Alcorta said.
Institutions can also improve their retention and graduation rates among the population by providing academic advising, mentorship, tutoring and “culturally relevant” programs, Alcorta added. Hiring diverse faculty and supporting Hispanic student associations are also key for building inclusive campus environments, she said.
It’s possible for colleges to navigate potential internal resistance to these efforts by clearly communicating the benefits of achieving HSI status, such as gaining eligibility for more funding and hitting diversity goals, Alcorta said.
The long road to HSI status
After starting the formal process of pursuing the 25% threshold in 2020, Weber State did not make the list of emerging HSIs for the 2022-23 school year, Magaña said. University leaders consulted with experts to develop a five-year strategic plan that launched in 2021 and aimed to reach the 15% emerging HSI target by fall 2025.
The university is slowly making progress. This fall, Weber State has more than 4,043 full-time Hispanic and Latino students, representing about 13.2% of its full-time undergraduate population. That marked an all-time high for the fourth year in a row. In fall 2019, the university had just 3,357 full-time Hispanic students, representing 11.9% of its enrollment, he said.
“Even though we’re making progress in serving more Hispanic and Latino students than ever, the percentage that counts toward becoming an HSI is increasing a bit more slowly,” Magaña said.
Weber State’s biggest challenge to reaching the threshold, he noted, is navigating limited funding and staffing, which is crucial to creating the infrastructure needed to sustain its HSI efforts and retain students until they graduate.
But the university is trying to use resources more proactively. It has hired several employees focused on connecting with the college’s Spanish-speaking community and achieving the HSI designation. That includes a full-time translator and an executive director of HSI Initiatives.
“There’s always room for improvement, and it’s going to take many hands, but HSI is all about collaboration,” said Magaña.
If Weber State is one day able to succeed, it could unlock federal grants that would “help strengthen the institution as a whole,” Magaña added.
“That’s money that can help uplift our school and our entire community, so we’re not shy about our vision to eventually strive toward HSI status,” he said. “And it only makes sense, given where we live and the communities we serve.”
