\n<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Hispanic-serving institutions in Colorado, for example, have been lobbying for a bill that would create a \u201cthriving institutions\u201d 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.<\/p>\n
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 \u201cHispanic thriving institutions\u201d to \u201crural thriving institutions\u201d to institutions that show particularly strong outcomes for adult learners, first-generation students, military students or parenting students.<\/p>\n
She and other leaders of HSIs advocated for the idea when they saw \u201cthe writing on the wall\u201d that MSIs\u2019 federal funding might get pulled.<\/p>\n
\u201cInstitutions want to be recognized for the great work they\u2019re doing,\u201d she said. \u201cWhat [the recognition] would say to the public, to the students, to our community, is that we don\u2019t just enroll a certain percentage of students. We also produce successful outcomes for those students.\u201d<\/p>\n
Right now, there\u2019s 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\u2019t, he believes the \u201cthriving\u201d label could bring in funding from philanthropists and federal agencies, like the National Science Foundation, by signaling to them that these institutions are \u201cdoing the work right\u201d and are worthy of investment. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re disaggregating their data. They\u2019re trying to identify what are the gaps, what are they missing, so that way they\u2019re supporting students, faculty and staff at the institution,\u201d Del Real said. He sees the designation as a way to honor these institutions but also \u201cto hold each other accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n
California lawmakers are considering a similar path.<\/p>\n
State Senator Eloise G\u00f3mez 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\u2013serving institutions.<\/p>\n
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\u00a0percent Black students, or at least 1,500 Black students, to qualify. The institutions also must provide similar information about how they\u2019re helping those students succeed.)<\/p>\n
Kirin Macapugay, vice chair of the California Commission on Asian and Pacific Islander American Affairs and chair of the commission\u2019s higher ed advisory committee, said such designations feel particularly important in the current federal policy landscape.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn 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,\u201d Macapugay said in a statement.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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\u00a0percent of California community colleges are HSIs, with 70\u00a0percent 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\u2013Mission Community College District, which drove the legislation.<\/p>\n
In California, legislation known as the 50\u00a0Percent 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen 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,\u201d Berman said in the news release. The legislation \u201cempowers our community colleges to save these programs and continue supporting their students, who deserve better than to become collateral damage in this administration\u2019s cruel agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n
MSI advocates are eager to find ways to partner with states as federal funding for these institutions remains uncertain.<\/p>\n
Antonio Flores, president and CEO of the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities, said he\u2019s hopeful some states will be \u201cresponsive\u201d to calls for MSI support, in part because the federal government \u201chas expressed its desire to delegate a lot of the authority to the states, not just with respect to our institutions, but across the board.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added that states are deeply invested in \u201ceducation and training of their labor force and workforce development.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n
Some college leaders remain hopeful that states will come through with additional funds.<\/p>\n
Mike Mu\u00f1oz, president of Long Beach City College, said it\u2019s possible that California could increase existing state sources of funding for student supports, like student success block grants or the community college system\u2019s Student Equity and Achievement Program. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to need to engage in state advocacy with our chancellor\u2019s office to look at the increase of funds for categorical programs\u00a0\u2026 to create sustainability plans for much of these high-impact practices\u201d previously funded by federal grants, he said.<\/p>\n
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\u2019t have the flush budgets necessary to give MSIs what they need.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt 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?\u201d she said. \u201cWhatever they create, I don\u2019t think it can replace the quantity of resources that were available at the federal level.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46268,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[16349,23668,1561,1207,694],"class_list":{"0":"post-46267","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education","8":"tag-institutions","9":"tag-minorityserving","10":"tag-states","11":"tag-step","12":"tag-support"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46267\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/46268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}