Unpacking the Performativity of Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) Designation: Holding Universities Accountable and Developing a Call to Action
Abstract
1. Introduction
You are an extraordinary group of students, but you also had help… the invaluable support from [the Latine Ethnic Center], where [the] staff have worked tirelessly to make sure you found the guidance and resources necessary to help you complete your journey…The University is also proud to be a Hispanic-serving institution. With nearly half of our student body now identifying as Latinx, Latino, Chicano, or Hispanic, we’re one of the very few Hispanic-serving institutions in the nation that also happen to be Research 1 universities… a distinction that this university wears proudly. That means we are here for you no matter what your educational goals or aspirations are—whether you’re aiming for a classroom or a boardroom, a music conservatory, or a natural laboratory. And there’s a reason we… have a nationally recognized [Chicanx/Latine] studies program that’s the envy of the nation. You, our students, have brought to it your boundless energy, curiosity, and enthusiasm, supported by some of the most dedicated faculty and staff in the field. You have brought to [the university] your culture and your language, and your warm sense of community and family, and our campus and our community are stronger for your being here.(President’s Speech—Latine Graduation)
Critical Intersectional Self-Reflexivity & Framework
2. Materials and Methods
3. Results
3.1. Institutional Gatekeeping & Statistical Gaslighting
You must know that the type of request you are making is highly unusual and would require an immense amount of resources to fulfill. Additionally, [our office] does not provide any student-level data containing any PII [personally identifiable information], as that is outside the scope of our responsibilities, and we lack the authority to release such data. Thus, we will not fulfill or consider fulfilling any such request. This is clearly stated on our website.
Unfortunately, we do not provide data for requests when already available via the dashboards. The difference between the “Sociology” and “Sociology Department” options has to do with the organizational code to which each faculty is assigned. There are separate organizational codes for “Sociology” and “Sociology Department,” which is why they are kept separate.
3.2. Ethnography of Institutional Departments: Intersectional Curricular Genealogy
3.3. Precarious Funding and Support of Hispanic-Serving Spaces
It is with a heavy heart that we must inform you that the… Upward Bound program will not continue after 31 August 2022. As many of you know, our program is grant-funded—which means that every 5 years, we must reapply for funding from the federal government. Unfortunately, our program was not selected for refunding in the most recent TRIO Grant Award Cycle and therefore is unable to continue its services.(Upward Bound Website).
This mission, as is the case with most HSIs, fails to address its HSI designation, a problematic omission from a statement that signals the philosophical values and priorities of the institution to the world (Garcia 2023, pp. 37–38).As the state’s premier institution of higher learning and provider of health care, [the University] promotes discovery, generates intellectual and cultural contributions, honors academic values, and fosters an educated, healthy, and economically vigorous [state]
4. Discussion
Policy Implications and Recommendations
- Intentional investment in recruiting and retaining Latine scholars, students, staff, and administrators committed to engaging and transformative impact. This can be accomplished through preferred criteria (e.g., demonstrated commitment to equity, inclusion and student success, as well as working with broadly diverse communities). Another facet could be the adoption of intersectionality as a normative principle for baseline data on student demographics, outcomes and benchmark data on faculty and staff hires that goes beyond compliance to confronting and eliminating intersectional inequities in outcomes, resources and practice. This could be institutionalized in public facing dashboards, institutional vision and mission statements as well as in budgets that allocate resources accordingly.
- Curriculum, Pedagogy, and Department Community-Care. Departments could include annual review and tenure and promotion criteria that include discussion of how instructors and the department leverage the cultural wealth of students. This could be done by providing courses that include place-based learning opportunities focused on the local community’s needs, internship opportunities, as well as community members as faculty with expertise that could be acknowledged through titles and recognition as professors of practice. Accountability structures could be incorporated in seven-year academic program reviews (self-studies and external review guidelines), as well as annual department- and unit-level retreats and review forms for faculty, staff and high-level administrators’ performance evaluations.
- Sustainable and liberatory fixed allocation of funds for Latine-focused Student Support and Empowerment. This could be creating dual enrolled courses that are open to both high school students and undergraduate students on Chicanx/Latinx Studies and intentional partnerships with TRIO programs, including the Upward Bound Program, that focuses on students growing up in a household where no parent/guardian earned a four-year college degree.
- Community Partnerships that Advocate for Latine community development and empowerment. This could take the form of internship credits for students interested in education, law and public health focused on the needs of Latine communities. It could also include the creation of pipelines for community members to become professors of practice and subject matter experts.
- Institutional memory and archives of activists’ struggles at the University across time as part of academic program self-studies and as ongoing coursework and research in social science and history classes and other departments. This could provide a valuable research experience for undergraduate and graduate students alike. See the ethnography of the university project at the University of Illinios-Urbana Champaign as one example of how to implement this project: http://www.eui.illinois.edu/.
5. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Conflicts of Interest
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Castillo, F.E.; Castorena, A.R.; López, N. Unpacking the Performativity of Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) Designation: Holding Universities Accountable and Developing a Call to Action. Soc. Sci. 2025, 14, 585. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci14100585
Castillo FE, Castorena AR, López N. Unpacking the Performativity of Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) Designation: Holding Universities Accountable and Developing a Call to Action. Social Sciences. 2025; 14(10):585. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci14100585
Chicago/Turabian StyleCastillo, Florence Emilia, Angeles Rubi Castorena, and Nancy López. 2025. "Unpacking the Performativity of Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) Designation: Holding Universities Accountable and Developing a Call to Action" Social Sciences 14, no. 10: 585. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci14100585
APA StyleCastillo, F. E., Castorena, A. R., & López, N. (2025). Unpacking the Performativity of Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) Designation: Holding Universities Accountable and Developing a Call to Action. Social Sciences, 14(10), 585. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci14100585