By: Cassandra Arroyo and Deborah Santiago, Excelencia in Education Introduction Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) represent a critical group of institutions enrolling and graduating Latino students. Since 1995, the federal government has allocated funds to HSIs to “to expand educational opportunities for, and improve the attainment of, Hispanic students” through the Title V…

By: Rafael Ramírez Rivera, Acting President Inter American University of Puerto Rico Institutional resilience is “the ability of an organization to anticipate, prepare, respond, and adapt to ever-increasing changes and sudden disruptions in order to survive and thrive”, according to the UK Board of Institutional Standards. …

By: Sami R. Nour, Deborah Santiago, Emily Labandera, and Cassandra Arroyo, Excelencia in Education Earning a college education pays, but especially in Puerto Rico. Consider that ten years after entering a postsecondary institution in Puerto Rico, students from low-income backgrounds have much higher incomes than local 25–34 year-olds whose highest…

By: Deborah Santiago, Emily Labandera, and Cassandra Arroyo, Excelencia in Education Introduction Why do institutions serving students with the greatest needs, and greatest potential of benefiting from higher education, have to be so resilient? With limited resources, these institutions have to remain flexible and adaptable to unforeseen situations, and both external…

By Gabriel Bermea, Institutional Leadership Manager — Workforce Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) that listened to and learned from their students intentionally served them by strategically managing their CARES funds and staying focused on their Latino students in both proactive and reactive ways at the height of the pandemic. Introduction The Coronavirus…

By Deborah Santiago and Cassandra Arroyo Overview A guaranteed non-competitive grant program for Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) would accomplish five key goals. It would: Serve as a mechanism for incentivizing HSIs to apply for Title V designation and thus qualify for various federal funding sources (e.g., …

by Julieta Rico and Deborah Santiago Many Latino college students have persisted, despite being disproportionately negatively affected by COVID-19, with institutional support. This year, Excelencia in Education invited programs to share how their work was impacted by COVID-19 and how they adapted to better SERVE their Latino, and all, students…

By Deborah Santiago and Emily Labandera Latino and Black students’ enrollment and retention have decreased since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. From Spring through Fall 2020, both student groups saw disproportionate declines in enrollment and retention. In the five years before the pandemic (Fall 2014 to Fall 2019), Latino…

by Deborah Santiago and Janette Martinez Providing a guaranteed amount of funding for Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs), regardless if they’ve applied for a Title V grant, sends a core message of commitment and support for Hispanic-Serving Institutions. In a previous post, we argued that to more equitably support Latino student success…