CENTRAL WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY Board of Trustees July 26, 2018 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY – Preliminary Exploration Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) Status Background Information: The percent of students of color CWU serves has been increasing for many years. Total student diversity as reported at spring 2018 census was 34 percent, including international students, or 31 percent, excluding international students. The fastest growing group among students of color is LatinX/Hispanic students. In 2009, just 9 percent of students identified as Latinx/Hispanic; in 2017 the percent was 15.8 percent. This growth, combined with national and state trends described below, CWU’s geographic location, and our strong commitment to inclusiveness, call for new strategies for ensuring student success, including those assumed within Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI). For an institution to be designated by the US Dept. of Education as an HSI, it must have at least 25 percent Latinx/Hispanic student population. This designation is based on official data for the previous year, as reported through the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS). While “emerging” or “emergent” HSI is not an official federal designation, the public policy and student advocacy group, Excelencia in Education, uses the term to describe “institutions with an undergraduate FTE Hispanic enrollment between 15 and 24 percent.” HSI designation opens the door to multiple grant funding opportunities currently available at the federal level. Brief Overview: In fall 2017, Provost Katherine Frank sponsored a small group of administrators, faculty, and staff to attend the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU) annual meeting. Five representatives from Academic and Student Life and Strategic Enrollment Management attended the meeting and returned to campus extremely energized and excited about helping to initiate next steps at CWU. In winter 2018, after consultation with President Gaudino, Provost Frank convened a 19-member HSI Steering Committee (including the five individuals who attended HACU) from across the university (see Appendix A in the attached report) to explore the possibility of strategic pursuit of HSI status at CWU. While the possibility has been discussed informally at CWU for many years, there has not been an organized examination of this possibility. CWU needed to discuss what it means to be an HSI, how well positioned CWU is to pursue this designation, what is already happening on campus to support the effort, where gaps exist, and what types of investments may need to be made. Currently, there are four public HSIs (all community colleges) in Washington State: Big Bend Community College (37.2 percent), Columbia Basin College (34.9 percent), Wenatchee Valley College (39.4 percent), and Yakima Valley College (50 percent). CWU would be the only public university in Washington State to
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