Learning from the Past to Create an Equitable Future: An Archival Study of a University Emerging as a Hispanic-Serving Institution

Abstract

Emerging as a Hispanic Serving InstitutionA fter years of enrolling high numbers of Hispanic/Latinx students, Northern Arizona University (NAU) gained Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) status in Spring 2021. The institution currently enrolls a Hispanic/Latinx 1 community of 25%. As of Spring 2021, NAU is recognized by the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU) and has access to apply for critical federal grants that expand educational opportunities for this population and other racially minoritized groups on campus.In 1978, the first time race/ethnic data was collected by the university, NAU enrolled 498 Hispanic/Latinx students (4.41%). Since then, the university has experienced positive growth in its Hispanic/Latinx student population with only a few exceptions of slight drops in enrollment of less than .35% in AY80/81, AY82/83, AY86/87, and AY02/03.However, as research from Garcia et al. ( 2019) noted, servingness is not accurately reflected through percentages alone. Rather, a university that engages in servingness attends to: (a) Latinx student identity and experience in the curriculum, (b) expansive financial aid offerings, (c) Latinx student culture, (d) recognition of family as an important component of student life and success, (e) providing basic needs, (f) implementing culturally sustaining policies that promote belongingness and equity, (g) promoting multilinguality, (h) attending to compositional diversity, and (i) increasing graduation rates, job placement, GPAs, course completion, and graduate education going. Despite having 25% + enrollment of Latinx/Hispanic students, HSIs do not have historical missions to serve Hispanic/ Latinx population and therefore must actively work to (re)shape their campuses with the goal of "decreasing