According to the Department of Education, the legal definition of a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) is an institution of higher education that has an enrollment of undergraduate full-time equivalent students that is at least 25 percent Hispanic students, at the end of the award year immediately preceding the date of application.
Dr. Gina Ann Garcia and other scholars and practitioners in the field encourage us to think beyond enrollment demographics, and discover what it means to truly serve students through a lens of equity and justice. They argue that impactful institutional change will require more than just new funding. They insist that we must determine the steps necessary to cultivate servingness at all levels of our institution, and commit to a path that will lead us to meaningful transformation.
You can learn more about the work of HSI scholars and practitioners by listening to Dr. Garcia's podcast ¿Qué pasa, HSIs?
Campus Racial Incidents, Hate Crimes, and White Male and Female Students' Racial Attitudes. (2020)
Assessing Color-Neutral Racial Attitudes of Faculty at Hispanic-Serving Institutions (2020)
Culturally Relevant Practices that 'Serve' Students at a Hispanic Serving Institution. (2015)
Transforming Hispanic-Serving Institutions for Equity and Justice (2023)
Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) in Practice: Defining 'Servingness' at HSIs (Dr. Gina Garcia, editor, 2020)
Becoming Hispanic-Serving Institutions : Opportunities for Colleges and Universities (2019)
Excelencia in Education
Excelencia in Education, founded in 2004, accelerates Latino student success in higher education to address the U.S. economy’s need for a highly educated workforce and for civic leadership by:
providing data-driven analysis of the educational status of Latinos;
promoting education policies and institutional practices that support their academic achievement; and
organizing a network of professionals with common cause for Latino student success.
ESCALA Educational Services: HSI Faculty Development
ESCALA offers equity-based professional development for practitioners in Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) and emerging HSIs. According to their website, "Our programs aim to dismantle systemic racism in higher education for Latinx people by supporting HSI practitioners in changing the educational environments within Hispanic Serving Institutions. We do this to restore justice to Latinx people who have been historically marginalized and de-centered in U.S. educational institutions and have the aspirational capital and ventajas to succeed in environments that validate and honor their cultural as well as academic selves."
Alliance of Hispanic Serving Institution Educators (AHSIE)
The Alliance of Hispanic Serving Institution Educators (AHSIE) exists to support the work of the nation’s Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) as they seek to provide quality, relevant educational opportunities to large and growing numbers of underserved populations, particularly Hispanic students. All of the Alliance’s activities directly benefit practitioners and educators at HSIs through measures that involve cooperation, networking, partnerships, information-sharing, technical assistance and collaboration.
American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education (AAHHE)
The American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education (AAHHE) is an agent of change for improving education, thus enabling Hispanic students to fully participate in a diverse society. AAHHE works collaboratively with all sectors of education, business, industry, as well as community and professional organizations to enhance the educational aspirations and to meet the needs of a significantly increasing Hispanic population.
