States Step In to Support Minority-Serving Institutions

Some state lawmakers and higher ed leaders are thinking up new ways states can support minority-serving institutions after the U.S. Department of Education axed hundreds of millions of dollars intended for these colleges and universities last fall.

While some states are mulling new designations of their own that recognize institutions serving traditionally underrepresented students, others are trying to make state funds more flexible to help MSIs backfill lost federal grants.

Hispanic-serving institutions in Colorado, for example, have been lobbying for a bill that would create a “thriving institutions” designation for colleges and universities that hit certain outcome standards for underserved student populations. The legislation, introduced in January, leaves open what that could mean but proposes setting up an advisory committee of student success experts, business leaders and others to help determine the standards.

Yesenia Silva Estrada, vice president of planning and chief of staff at Colorado Mountain College, said proponents of the bill want to apply the recognition to institutions serving all kinds of underserved students, from “Hispanic thriving institutions” to “rural thriving institutions” to institutions that show particularly strong outcomes for adult learners, first-generation students, military students or parenting students.

She and other leaders of HSIs advocated for the idea when they saw “the writing on the wall” that MSIs’ federal funding might get pulled.

“Institutions want to be recognized for the great work they’re doing,” she said. “What [the recognition] would say to the public, to the students, to our community, is that we don’t just enroll a certain percentage of students. We also produce successful outcomes for those students.”

Right now, there’s no state funding attached to the bill. College leaders hope that could change down the line, said Manuel Del Real, executive director of HSI initiatives and inclusion at Metropolitan State University of Denver. But even if it doesn’t, he believes the “thriving” label could bring in funding from philanthropists and federal agencies, like the National Science Foundation, by signaling to them that these institutions are “doing the work right” and are worthy of investment.

“They’re disaggregating their data. They’re trying to identify what are the gaps, what are they missing, so that way they’re supporting students, faculty and staff at the institution,” Del Real said. He sees the designation as a way to honor these institutions but also “to hold each other accountable.”

California lawmakers are considering a similar path.

State Senator Eloise Gómez Reyes and Assembly Member Mike Fong introduced bills in February that would create a California Hispanic-serving institution designation and a similar designation for Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander–serving institutions.

To qualify, public colleges and universities would need to submit plans and goals for improving success outcomes for these student groups over the next five years and detail the outreach efforts and support services targeted at these students. Institutions that earn the designation would reapply after a five-year period. (The state already has a California Black-serving designation as of last year, which requires institutions to serve 10 percent Black students, or at least 1,500 Black students, to qualify. The institutions also must provide similar information about how they’re helping those students succeed.)

Kirin Macapugay, vice chair of the California Commission on Asian and Pacific Islander American Affairs and chair of the commission’s higher ed advisory committee, said such designations feel particularly important in the current federal policy landscape.

“In this Federal Administration where the barriers for students of color are real and persistent, a statewide designation process shows that California is a place where their voices are valued, their experiences are centered, and their success is our priority,” Macapugay said in a statement.

More Flexible State Funds

Other California lawmakers have taken a different approach to supporting MSIs, trying to free up state funds to help them recover from federal funding losses.

Assembly Member Marc Berman introduced a bill last month that would give community colleges with minority-serving institution status more flexibility in how they use state dollars so they can continue to fund programs previously supported by chopped federal funds, including MSI and TRIO grants. Ninety percent of California community colleges are HSIs, with 70 percent of HSI funding flowing to the state from the federal government, so these institutions were particularly hard hit by the loss of MSI funding, according to a news release from the West Valley–Mission Community College District, which drove the legislation.

In California, legislation known as the 50 Percent Law requires community colleges to spend at least half their budget on instructional costs. The new bill would waive the restriction in cases where institutions are using funds to backfill their federal funding losses.

“When President Trump pulls the rug out from under our most vulnerable students, California must fight back, holding firm to our values of equity and access to higher education,” Berman said in the news release. The legislation “empowers our community colleges to save these programs and continue supporting their students, who deserve better than to become collateral damage in this administration’s cruel agenda.”

Hopes and Fears

MSI advocates are eager to find ways to partner with states as federal funding for these institutions remains uncertain.

Antonio Flores, president and CEO of the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities, said he’s hopeful some states will be “responsive” to calls for MSI support, in part because the federal government “has expressed its desire to delegate a lot of the authority to the states, not just with respect to our institutions, but across the board.”

He added that states are deeply invested in “education and training of their labor force and workforce development.” He sees MSI funding as a critical part of that effort because the institutions serve students who might otherwise fall through the cracks without the resources they need to train for in-demand jobs.

Some college leaders remain hopeful that states will come through with additional funds.

Mike Muñoz, president of Long Beach City College, said it’s possible that California could increase existing state sources of funding for student supports, like student success block grants or the community college system’s Student Equity and Achievement Program.

“We’re going to need to engage in state advocacy with our chancellor’s office to look at the increase of funds for categorical programs … to create sustainability plans for much of these high-impact practices” previously funded by federal grants, he said.

But even as states explore new forms of support, Deborah Santiago, CEO of Excelencia in Education, an organization focused on Latino student success, worries that they don’t have the flush budgets necessary to give MSIs what they need.

“At a time when states are challenged with their funding already, is creating a new designation and set-aside resources for competition or investment going to be plausible?” she said. “Whatever they create, I don’t think it can replace the quantity of resources that were available at the federal level.”