After qualifying as a Hispanic-Serving Institution two years ago, Columbia will be able to apply for a major Department of Education grant next year that could help develop and strengthen resources for Hispanic students.
In Fall 2022, 25.8% of Columbia’s students identified as Hispanic, the number needed to become an HSI. However, the college was not eligible to apply for federal funding from the U.S. Department of Education until next year, the Chronicle previously reported.
Institutions are considered Hispanic-servicing if at least a quarter of their student body is Hispanic, the term used by the federal government for people who originated from a Spanish-speaking country, according to the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities, There are more than 600 colleges and universities in the U.S. and Puerto Rico that qualify as an HSI.
Senior Associate Provost Nathan Bakkum said the college formed a committee to focus on enhancing support of Hispanic students.
“The committee’s charge includes exploration of grant opportunities associated with this designation, including federal grants and those administered by other agencies,” Bakkum said in an email.
The Department of Education has not announced grants for the next fiscal year. Bakkum said, adding that the college will “pursue relevant opportunities as they arise.”
Resources that the grant can help fund include curriculum development, equipment purchases and student support services, something Jamirelys Maldonado, a first-year dance major, would utilize to assist her time adjusting to school in English after arriving from Puerto Rico three months ago.
As she did orientation and research about the school online from home, Maldonado found that the Latino presence and inclusion weren’t as abundant as she anticipated. In a class of hers with a heavy reading load, she struggled to not only understand the text, and its “figurative, difficult language,” but also to find resources to help her get through the class.
“The class is based on the readings, so I asked the teacher if there was a way I could get this book maybe translated, and there was nothing,” Maldonado said. “So, I would say maybe provide that kind of resource, so if [international students] don’t understand something, if they struggle, they have this second option.”
Gabriela Díaz de Sabatés, associate professor in the School of Communication and Culture, said one of the things funding helps with is smoothing transitions for international and first-generation students, like Maldonado.
“First-generation students do not have the know-how when they are in college,” she said. “They don’t have a guide; it has not been incorporated in their family culture. There are resources on the internet, but you need to know what you’re looking for. So HSI: what that support does, is that it creates, through funding, programs, offices, positions that will guide and support students.”
Seeing an increase of Latino students in her classes every year, Díaz de Sabatés highlighted the importance of offering a variety of resources, to help different situations of Hispanic students.
“It’s not one measure,” Díaz de Sabatés said. “It’s going into the fine grain of the Hispanic population. There are programs that are geared towards specific needs of different Latine students. For example, some of our Latine students at Columbia are first generation, but not everyone. Some of our students are of low socioeconomic background, but not everybody.”
A survey from Spring 2023 found that only 3% of full-time faculty are Hispanic, the Chronicle previously reported.
In July 2024, President Joe Biden issued an executive order to call for more federal support for HSIs, as they historically have received 25% less per student in federal dollars than other institutions. Biden had earlier issued another executive order requiring the federal government to work with HSIs to diminish federal funding barriers.
As the school is to submit the grant application after Biden leaves office, the future of HSI funding remains in question. President-elect Donald Trump campaigned on promises to look closely at federal funding for education, penalizing institutions that have DEI initiatives.
“One other thing I’ll be doing very early on in the administration, is closing up the Department of Education in Washington D.C., and sending all education and education work and needs back to the states,” he said. “We want them to run the education of our children.”
This happened during his first term as well when his former director of the Office of Management and Budget expressed concerns in a September 2020 memo that federal dollars were being allocated towards training for agencies surrounding topics of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
“In addition, all agencies should begin to identify all available avenues within the law to cancel any such contracts and/or to divert federal dollars away from these unAmerican propaganda training sessions,” according to the memo.
That same administration is now returning when Columbia is eligible to apply for the Title V grant.
Marcelo Sabatés, professor in the School of Communication and Culture, said these are “tough times for higher education,” as he said he finds the incoming administration to disregard minorities and immigrants.
“The country seems to be pushed towards an anti-education, anti-intellectual, anti-knowledge view,” he said.
Maldonado said she fears the impact of the Trump Administration, both for HSIs and Latinos being “pushed away” by their return.
“As a Puerto Rican, yes I’m concerned,” she said. “And for my other fellow Latino people, I’m super concerned. I’m concerned that it’s going to be difficult.”
Jayie Nacipucha, junior music business major, hopes to see the grant further develop the Latino presence in the classroom, as an Ecuadorian who doesn’t see her country taught about as much as she would like to see.
“It would be pretty beneficial, especially if Columbia is growing in Hispanic and Latin student population,” she said. “I would say though, that I think Columbia will need some work to do, to really show just how deserving they are.”
Copy edited by Vanessa Orozco
Resumen en Español:
Columbia es elegible para aplicar para la subvención federal del Título V por primera vez aunque se convirtió en una Institución al Servicio a los Hispanos en el otoño de 2022. La subvención ayuda a las universidades con el desarrollo curricular, compras de equipo y servicios de apoyo estudiantil. Aunque la administración de Biden emitió una orden ejecutiva para promover el programa, el futuro de la subvención parece insegura al regreso del Presidente electo Donald Trump a su cargo en enero.
Resumen en Español por Sofía Oyarzún
Resumen en Español editado por Doreen Abril Albuerne Rodriguez
