Published By The Boston Globe Published On January 12, 2023 This year Rhode Island College became the first four-year baccalaureate school in the state to earn Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) status, a designation from the U.S. Department of Education recognizing colleges and universities where at least 25 percent of undergraduate students identify as Hispanic/Latinx. As of 2021, there were 559 HSIs across 29 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, enrolling two-thirds of all Hispanic/Latinx undergraduates in the U.S. This is a recognition of the growing diversity of RIC’s student body and our mission to serve all Rhode Islanders. College Unbound, a Providence-based program, is also an HSI, but caters to adult learners returning to school. The designation makes RIC eligible for federal and philanthropic funding available only to HSIs, which can expand educational opportunities for Hispanic/Latinx students while strengthening academic offerings, program quality and institutional stability for all RIC students. More importantly, HSI status is an opportunity to make profound impacts on education and workforce development statewide. Rhode Island’s Hispanic/Latinx population grew by nearly 40 percent from the 2010 census to 2020 (12.4 percent to 16.6 percent). Over that same span, the number of Hispanic/Latinx students at RIC grew by nearly 120 percent (8.8 percent to 25 percent). We are increasingly the college of choice for one of the state’s fastest growing populations, which is aligned with our mission to make a four-year degree accessible to all Rhode Islanders. This creates opportunities for more Rhode Islanders to move up the ladder: according to U.S. News and World Reports, RIC ranks highest among all regional public universities in New England for social mobility among graduates. That puts us in a prime position to meet the state’s workforce needs of today and tomorrow. Our Workforce Development Hub in Central Falls provides job training and ESL classes in a community where Hispanic/Latinx residents comprise nearly 70 percent of the population, preparing them for gateway careers like medical assistant or community health worker in Rhode Island’s growing healthcare sector. This is a win-win: increasing access to higher education and meeting employers’ needs. Unique programs like our Project ExCEL provide an on-ramp for academically promising English language learners to enter baccalaureate programs, producing more graduates in nursing, social work, life sciences, computer information systems and other in-demand fields. Rhode Island also has a critical need for more multilingual and BIPOC educators. If we invest in RIC as an HSI, it can help build a pipeline from K-12 public schools — where Hispanic/Latinx children account for 22 percent of all students statewide and approximately 68 percent in Providence — to our nationally recognized teacher preparation programs. We are already activating our HSI status for the benefit of our students and our state. In December we were approved for a Congressional Directed Program grant through the office of Senator Sheldon Whitehouse to support these efforts. We have also joined the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities, representing more than 500 schools in the U.S., Puerto Rico, Latin America and Spain, and will seek technical assistance and best practices from Excelencia in Education, a national nonprofit that accelerates Latino student success. We are proud to be the first four-year HSI in the state, but we certainly hope not to remain the only one for long. Rhode Island is home to a diverse and growing number of Hispanic/Latinx communities and when higher education better serves them, the entire state is made stronger. Publication URL See Article
