Colleges scramble after minority grants eliminated

Money went toward research, lab upgrades and other services that aided all students.

- BY OLIVIA SANCHEZ

CAROL M. HIGHSMITH Buyenlarge

CAL STATE CHICO is one of 171 Hispanic Serving Institutions in California.

As an undergraduate studying psychology at Chico State, Gabriel Muñoz enrolled in a program that paid him to do summer research and matched him up with mentors and gave him access to career workshops.

The experience — funded by a federal grant for Hispanic Serving Institutions — sparked a love for research and he plans to enroll in a master’s program in psychology at Chico State, earn a PhD and become a college professor.

However, Muñoz will be among the last students to benefit from the program.

Cal State Chico is losing more than $3 million in federal funds, as part of a larger cancellation of more than $350 million in grants to minority-serving institutions, or MSIs, around the country. Now those colleges are working to find ways to replace or do without the money, which covered research grants, laboratory equipment, curricular materials and student support programs — benefits that extended to all students.

In making the cuts last fall, the Trump administration decided that MSI programs were racially discriminatory because institutions had to enroll a percentage of students from a certain race or ethnicity to apply for funding. To be considered a Hispanic Serving Institution, or HSI, a college’s undergraduate enrollment must be at least 25% Latino.

As congressional leaders argued over final budget legislation amid the partial government shutdown this week, it appeared that some education funding, including money for HSI grants, would be restored to the proposed budget. But the Education Department would retain the authority to decide how, or if, that funding would be distributed.

Serving all students

Experts emphasize that these colleges serve many low-income and first-generation students, regardless of ethnicity.