¿Qué pasa, HSIs?

We finalize this season exploring collective grief, hope, and joy with Dr. Bracho, an assistant professor at Cal State Long Beach and certified death doula. Dr. Bracho recounts a long history of intimate loss including the loss of his father and his mother and explains how writing, ritual, and formal training as a death doula helped him develop a practice of accompanying others through death and m...

What do we do when the federal government attacks HSIs? Stand up, fight back!!!! Amanda Fuchs Miller, former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Higher Education Programs at the US Department of Education, who oversaw all Title III and V programs during the Biden-Harris administration, discusses the current political climate for HSIs and offers strategies for advocating for Title III and Title V fundin...

What is the role of HSIs in building a diverse nursing workforce? With intentionality and partnership, HSIs can and should train bilingual, bicultural nurses. In this episode Dr. Garcia welcomes Dr. Tina Loarte-Rodriguez, Executive Director of the Connecticut Center for Nursing Workforce and founder/author of Latinas in Nursing. The conversation addresses critical gaps in nursing diversity, noting...

In this episode we talk about policies of possibility and the ways HSIs along the Mexico-U.S. border support transborder students. We feature Dr. Mark Sanchez, CEO/President of Southwestern College in California, who advocated for California's Assembly Bill 91, a five-year pilot program starting in 2024 that provides low-income Mexicans living within 45 miles of the Mexico-California border with n...

Emerging into HSI-ness is a powerful construct that we continue to explore in this episode. Irvine Valley College (IVC) is an emerging HSI community college that has been intentionally transforming its campus to better serve Latine/x students without waiting for federal HSI eligibility or Title V funding. The college is already an Asian American Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institution...

We continue down the path of healing while weathering the storm of Title V defunding with colegas from Cal State LA. Our guests include Dra. Jessica Morales-Chicas, Co-PI of DHSI Grant, Reclaiming Pedagogy, Community and Student Success, and Wendy Vaughn, Project Director of the grant. They explain how their five-year grant, focused on faculty professional development to better serve the campus's...

In her book All About Love: New Visions bell hooks reminds us that “the search for love continues even in the face of great odds.” As the HSI community faces great odds amidst defunding and confusion, we must also create joy, love, and hope. Dra. Marla Lopez, inaugural director of the HSI Research Center at the University of Arizona, joins us for a vulnerable conversation about navigating loss and...

In this episode we talk about all things Black Serving Institution (BSI), a new designation in California that creates a pathway for public and private colleges and universities to commit resources to advance the success of Black students. The designation requires campuses to demonstrate programs dedicated to Black student success, such as African-American studies and affinity spaces, as well as a...

In this episode of ¿Qué pasa, HSIs? we discuss the road to healing following the defunding of Title V grants that support HSIs. Our guests Dra. Melissa Menendez and Nathalie Quintero share their personal stories working at a Title V-funded HSI, Santa Barbara City College (SBCC), and the aftermath of the September 10, 2025 announcement to reprogram enrollment-based MSI funding. They describe how th...

We kick off season 7 of ¿Qué pasa, HSIs? discussing the $507.9 million loss to HSIs following the Department of Education’s announcement to defund enrollment-based MSIs on September 10, 2025. This conversation explores the current state of HSIs under the 47th president of the United States as well as the complex ways HSIs have leveraged Title V funds over the last 25 years. Our guest Dr. Rebecca P...

For the final episode of season 6 we bring in a “new to the show” conversation on advising. And the whole episode is about advising and servingness. Dr. Gabe Bermea, a visiting scholar at the The Rutgers Center for Minority Serving Institutions, is a scholar and expert on advising practices with a keen focus on HSIs. He describes different types of advising models and dives deep into humanistic ad...

With over 400 campuses emerging toward 25% enrollment of Latine students and 600 institutions already meeting the threshold, we must talk about what it means to emerge as a campus that truly serves Latine students. Emergingness is the intentionality that goes into embracing servingness, and it is happening across the U.S. In this episode we welcome Kansas to the mic to learn about HSI work going o...

In this episode we get in (racial) formation with Dra. Kristine Jan Cruz Espinoza, an assistant professor of Counseling and College Student Personnel at California Lutheran University. Dra. Espinoza’s research revolves around racial and organizational classifications, focusing on MSIs; particularly dual and multiple designated MSIs. She lays out the landscape of these institutions drawing on her d...

What does it mean to be an historic HSI? Since few HSIs were founded with the mission to serve Latine students, the definition of an “historic HSI” is to have enrolled 25% Latine students since 1992 when the Higher Education Act was reauthorized to include HSIs. The historic HSIs are important because they have provided access to Latine students for over 30 years. In this episode we elevate these...

Developmental mathematics is one of the most pressing educational issues that colleges across the nation are addressing. Many states have passed legislation to address inequities in placement into developmental mathematics while individual colleges are trying innovative approaches to ensure the success of students who enroll in these courses. It’s an issue we may not fully solve, but there are man...

In this episode we nerd out on all things governance in higher education, with a focus on governing boards and trustees in HSIs. The role of governing boards in advancing servingness is an understudied topic, despite the importance of gaining support from trustees in order to advance equity and social justice goals. Dr. Demetri L. Morgan joins the conversation, bringing a wealth of knowledge on th...

What happens when a group of 15 change agents from across campus come together to build an HSI movement? That was the guiding question for a small grant project funded by the Student Experience Research Network (SERN). With the grant we launched “HSI Transformation Teams” at two community college campuses–Santa Rosa Junior College and Fullerton College. In this episode we talk about how the teams...

The new presidential administration took office on January 20th, 2025, launching a new era of federal politics for colleges and universities that many of us are trying to navigate. But how do we move forward when 47’s administration is releasing daily attacks on public education, research, academic freedom, access, and equity? On this episode of ¿Qué pasa, HSIs? we discuss the current federal clim...

What is a graduate-going culture? Drawing from the college-going culture research, I define a graduate-going culture as one where faculty, staff, and administrators are dedicated to promoting students’ aspirations for graduate school, including planning and preparation. I argue that HSIs should prioritize building a graduate-going culture that provides students with the awareness, knowledge, and s...

We kick off season 6 of ¿Qué pasa, HSIs? with a conversation about advocacy for Latine college students and HSIs. We learn with Dr. Patrick Velasquez, a Chicano educator who serves as Co-Chair of the San Diego Chicano/Latino Concilio on Higher Education and works directly with HSIs in the San Diego region. Patrick is a huge advocate for liberatory outcomes in HSIs and successfully advocated for th...

We conclude season 5 with a conversation on emergence and the active process of becoming a Hispanic-Serving Institution. Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (SLO) is one of the last institutions in the 23-campus Cal State system to become an HSI. Comparatively, many of the 23 CSUs have been HSIs for over 20 years, which put Cal Poly in an interesting position to act with intention and joy. And that they did....

In this episode of ¿Qué pasa, HSIs? we learn about enacting servingness across space and time. We focus specifically on the similarities and differences of emerging as a community college HSI and a four-year R1 HSI. Yesenia Escobar Mendoza talks about her experience as a counselor at San Jose City College working in a center that was created with a Title V grant and carrying on the HSI legacy over...

Class is in session with Dr. Alexandro Jose Gradilla, an activist professor at Cal State Fullerton who is grounded in liberatory and decolonial praxis. In this episode we learn how to utilize both federal and private foundation grants to enhance servingness with and for Latine undergraduate students, graduate students, and faculty. In his words he provides us with a “hometown buffet” of things you...

Let’s welcome New England to the mic! In this episode we learn about the HSI Movement taking place in Massachusetts and across the New England region. Our guests include Dra. Elisa Castillo, the Assistant Vice President of Hispanic and Minority Serving Initiatives at Salem State University, and Julissa Colón, the Founding Director of El Centro at Holyoke Community College. These mujeres are fierce...

In this episode of ¿Qué pasa, HSIs? we spotlight empirical research that is relevant to HSIs. Our guest, Rogelio Salazar, is a doctoral candidate in the Higher Education & Organizational Change program at UCLA's School of Education. Guided by critical frameworks and methodologies that center an intersectional lens in interrogating P-16 policy, their research demonstrates how policies, organiza...