Becoming Hispanic-Serving Institutions: Opportunities for Colleges and Universities

Reforming Higher Education: Innovation and the Public Good

by Gina Ann Garcia

How can striving Hispanic-Serving Institutions serve their students while countering the dominant preconceptions of colleges and universities? Winner of the AAHHE Book of the Year Award by the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs)―not-for-profit, degree-granting colleges and universities that enroll at least 25% or more Latinx students―are among the fastest-growing higher education segments in the United States. As of fall 2016, they represented 15% of all postsecondary institutions in the United States and enrolled 65% of all Latinx college students. As they increase in number, these questions bear What does it mean to serve Latinx students? What special needs does this student demographic have? And what opportunities and challenges develop when a college or university becomes an HSI? In Becoming Hispanic-Serving Institutions , Gina Ann Garcia explores how institutions are serving Latinx students, both through traditional and innovative approaches. Drawing on empirical data collected over two years at three HSIs, Garcia adopts a counternarrative approach to highlight the ways that HSIs are reframing what it means to serve Latinx college students. She questions the extent to which they have been successful in doing this while exploring how those institutions grapple with the tensions that emerge from confronting traditional standards and measures of success for postsecondary institutions. Laying out what it means for these three extremely different HSIs, Garcia also highlights the differences in the way each approaches its role in serving Latinxs. Incorporating the voices of faculty, staff, and students, Becoming Hispanic-Serving Institutions asserts that HSIs are undervalued, yet reveals that they serve an important role in the larger landscape of postsecondary institutions.

Genres: Nonfiction, Academic, Education, School

176 pages, Paperback

Published March 12, 2019

Reviews

[Kristin D. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Faculty and staff working at any type of higher ed institution need to pick up this book, read it, ruminate, and reread it. Not only does it have me rethinking some of my own work as a student and an administrator, it more importantly has me reflecting on how I can adapt my thinking and approach in the future.

[La'Tonya Miles · Rating 5 out of 5]

I tweeted my review of this book because I needed to document my responses in real time. Years from now, people will realize this is one of the most important higher education books in the 21st century.

[Galen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an illuminating book, and one that I highly recommend. Coming into this book, I was less familiar with Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) than I was with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). In this book, author Gina Ann Garcia presents a cogent case for the role of HSIs in higher education.

What I particularly appreciated about this book was how clearly Gina Ann Garcia demonstrates the effect that white normative standards have on our assessment of HSIs and their community members. That is, at both the Federal, State, and community level HSIs (and other predominantly minority serving institutions) are often regarded as being second- or third-tier instituion. But this assessment is made when looking through a predominantly white lens, which tends to favor standards such as volume of research, 6-year graduation rates, grant dollars, and other metrics which favor historically white institutions (WSIs).

Can we derive value from these traditional measures of institutional and student success? Yes, I believe so. Would higher education and our society at large benefit from a systemic shift in how we appraise the value of our institutions of higher education? Absolutely. And this is the case that Gina Ann Garcia makes.

As she argues, if institutions succumb to isomorphic and normative pressures (whereby institutions become more and more alike), MSIs dilute their capacity to celebrate and enhance the cultural values of their non-white students. If we are able to craft a new lens that scrutinizes success of both MSIs and WSIs, we can at once motivate the success of non-white students without sacrificing the distinct cultural elements of those non-white communities.

Thank you to Gina Ann Garcia for authoring such an important book, and I look forward to reading her subsequent works.

[Casey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read for Org and Gov (HED 4220). Had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Garcia when she came and spoke to our class. Becoming HSI is an easy to comprehend book diving into what it means for a university to take on that HSI identity. Dr. Garcia's passion flows through the book and I'm excited to continue reading her work and research.

[Frank Haug · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this for a committee I am on at the community college. Very insightful and informative. Ideas that after hearing her explain them seem so obvious and make so much sense. I will say that it reads like a doctoral dissertation, which maybe it was. Lots of jargon that I suppose for the right audience or other doctoral level researchers in this area may be useful and helpful.

[Alexandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well crafted research. The counter narratives are strong and prompt many reflection questions about how we support our students at HSIs. I would highly recommend this to other HSI scholars and to colleagues who conduct work around marginalized student populations.

[Jeannie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Essential reading for those who work, as I do, for HSIs. This book helped me to better understand the current state of my institution as an HSI, and more importantly, the work that needs to be done to move it toward serving our Latinx populations.

[Stephanie Briones · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first Title V read. Loved it and feel inspired to move forward in my career!

[Clarenda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Worth the read

[Renee Skrabacz · Rating 4 out of 5]

A must-read for anyone who works in higher education! Well-researched, informative.