Is “Business as Usual” Enough to Be Hispanic-Serving? Becoming a Hispanic-Serving Research Institution

Abstract

This study focuses on an emerging Hispanic-Serving Research Institution (HSRI) and seeks to understand its Hispanic-serving identity as seen through the eyes of senior campus administrators. Findings suggest that instead of asking whether an institution is Hispanic-serving, it may be more appropriate to ask about the extent to which an institution is Hispanic-serving, acknowledging the ongoing identity development that may be required of institutions and supporting the need to expand the existing HSI (Hispanic-serving institution) narrative. Resumen Este estudio enfocó en una institución de investigación emergente de servicio a hispanos (HSRI) y buscó entender su identidad de servicio a hispanos, vista a través de los ojos de administradores superiores del campo universitario. Hallazgos sugirieron que en lugar de preguntar si una institución es de servicio a hispanos, puede ser más apropiado el preguntar la medida en la cual una institución es de servicio a hispanos, reconociendo la identidad en proceso de desarrollo que puede ser requerida de instituciones y apoyando la necesidad de aumentar la narrativa existente de HSI.

Hispanic-Serving Institutions as Racialized Organizations: Elevating Intersectional Consciousness to Reframe the “H” in HSIs

“…According to Excelencia in Education (2021), HSIs enroll 67% of the Latinx undergraduate student population across 569 campuses. Scholars (Garcia, 2019; Marin, 2019) and policy intermediaries (Excelencia in Education, 2021) have challenged HSI leaders to move beyond enrolling Latinx students to serving them. Yet this diversity within HSIs also makes understanding servingness for Latinx students a complex issue and not easily generalizable (Cuellar, 2019).…”

Examining Organizational Behavior of Hispanic-Serving Institution Computer Science Departments: Toward Servingness and Equity in the Field

“…Adding these to the current number of 539 HSIs would represent a 65% increase in HSIs. To be responsive to student needs, these institutions will have to adjust their educational models in more culturally relevant directions to promote student success (Marin, 2019). It is critical that these institutions and others employ culturally relevant conceptual frameworks and practical strategies grounded in research about the very institutional contexts that have been especially successful in serving large numbers of Latinx and other racially minoritized students: MSIs and HSIs (Malcom-Piqueux, 2020;McGee, 2020a,b;NASEM, 2019;Núñez et al, 2021).…”

Transformative Education in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics: Empowering the Next Generation of Scientists

“…These skills must be developed through mentoring from a professional in the field who the student can engage with outside of the classroom. Unfortunately, many promising, talented URMs are overlooked by a selection process for Research Experience for Undergraduate (REU) programs that reproduce inequality (Figueroa, 2015;Kidder, 2013;Marin, 2019). In my work with students, I found that one fourth of these individuals had tried to join a faculty lab prior to their work with PMPS and were rejected due to high admission standards (often based on one-dimensional criteria like GPA) or a lack of experience or confidence in approaching faculty.…”

“…Including empowerment as a form of success for URMs stems from the transformative paradigm, which specifically calls to "disrupt commonly held assumptions that perpetuate privilege and exclude or render groups invisible" (Hurtado, 2015;Kezar & Lester, 2011). Empowerment can be assessed in students by taking into account important background characteristics that students bring to college with them and centering the experiences of students and faculty of color to examine the ways that institutionalized oppression has created inequality in student success (Cueller, 2015;Estepp et al, 2017;Marin, 2019;Monarrez et al, 2019). That URMs are deterred from the STEM environment because of the knowledge of bias is an example of how such imbedded inequality works to reproduce institutional oppression.…”