On October 8th 2021, The USDA’s Secretary Tom Vilsack and Deputy Secretary Jewel Bronaugh have announced that they will be investing $12 million to Hispanic-serving Institutions of higher education. This comes after a series of virtual engagement with Minority-serving institutions and Land-grant Universities serving under represented students.
For nearly 30 years Congress has funded a grant program for HSI’s and other minority-serving institutions (MSIs) to help build their capacity to better serve minority students. This has become a priority because statistics say many LatinX students come from low income, work while in school to pay for tuitions and are most likely first in their family to go to college. LatinX students also tend to enroll at underfunded community colleges and when it come to lower funding it directly means the outcomes may be worse.
Program Eligibility For Institutions
- Institutions must be designated as an eligible institution of higher education in order to apply for the Title V program and must meet the program-specific requirements to be defined as an HSI.
- To be designated as an eligible institution of higher education, an institution must apply for and receive designation through an application process. Please refer to the most recent Application for Designation as an Eligible Institution. You may contact the program office if you have questions regarding eligibility.
In other words to be an eligible HSI school, Hispanics/LatinX must be accounted for the minimum of 25% of the student population. There is also a requirement where the schools have to report each year on how they use the money, according to the Department of Education. The sad part is that there is no mandate for HSI grants that could really benefit Latino students.