Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) have a long history. It first began as a grassroots effort in the 1980s, with associations being formed across the nation to push for national recognition. In 1992, Congress formally recognized HSIs and appropriated federal funding for these institutions (AKA grants). An HSI institution is defined as:
- is an eligible institution; and
- has an enrollment of undergraduate full-time equivalent students that is at least 25 percent Hispanic students at the end of the award year immediately preceding the date of application.
Declining enrollment overall, increasing enrollment for Latinos
Over the past couple of years, there has been a dramatic decrease in enrollment overall, but in that past couple of years, the number of Latino students enrolled in college rose from 3.17 million in 2016 to 3.27 million in 2017. Hispanic undergraduate enrollment more than doubled, to 3 million. This makes them only one of two demographic groups that saw an increase in college attendance, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Most institutions don’t start out by attracting Latino students, they become Hispanic-serving when the area they serve has a significant Latino population growth. As the number of HSIs increase, more universities are testing out new ways to better serve a growing part of their student body. Some are adding more Hispanic faculty, forming committees, and creating events geared toward the Latino community. For example, Central Florida has seen an influx of Latinos moving to the area from Puerto Rico and Venezuela. A major university in the area, the University of Central Florida (UCF) has catered to this trend and recently became an HSI. They formed a committee and hired an assistant director of Hispanic-serving initiatives to cater to the growing population of Latino students. But that isn’t enough as Latinos are not monolithic, there is a major cultural shift that needs to be implemented in institutions in order to have this group of students succeed. For example, a Cinco de Mayo party would welcome Mexican students but would alienate Puerto Ricans. Yet, with an increase in enrollment, Latino students have the lowest degree attainment of any other group. Deborah Santiago, one of the co-founders of Excelencia in Education, says that is bad for business, “You can’t just enroll them if you’re not going to help them graduate….the only growth population is Hispanics. So we’re saying: You have got to focus on what it means to serve.”But what many higher ed institutions often fail to realize is how technology can help in this matter -- specifically how optimized workflows can be adapted to serve the needs of the growing Hispanic student body. An intelligent business process management (iBPMs) platform can help. is software that helps organizations optimize processes to become more efficient, streamlined, and adaptable to changing conditions. Using BPM software empowers non-technical users to build and model workflows with low-code technology.
