The charge of this University of Oregon taskforce is to assess what would be required for the university become a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI). This includes documenting enrollment trends, challenges to becoming a HSI, as well as assets the UO can leverage in terms of reaching this goal.

The members of this committee are:

• Laura Pulido, Indigenous, Race, and Ethnic Studies
• Gabriela Pérez-Báez, Linguistics
• Rosa Chávez-Jacuinde, Center for Multicultural Academic Excellence (CMAE)
• Jesse Nelson, Undergraduate Education & Student Success
• Lucas Silva, Environmental Studies and Biology
• Lynn Stephen, Anthropology

Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) is a federal designation given to universities and colleges with 25% or more Hispanic enrollment. The HSI Program is authorized under Title V of the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended. The purpose of the program is to expand educational opportunities for, and improve the academic attainment of, Latinx students, and to expand and enhance the academic offerings, program quality, and institutional stability of the colleges and universities that educate the majority of Latinx students and help large numbers of Latinx students complete postsecondary degrees.

2022 UO student ethnicity data.

The taskforce has currently created two subcommittees to advance this work. One committee is focused on collecting institutional data to help understand where university enrollment currently stands, while the second subcommittee is developing a complete picture of the larger landscape of Latinx resources at the UO, Latinx history at UO, and identifying holes where critical services and programs are needed. (For a real-time look at Latinx enrollment numbers, click to view the Office of the Provost’s Analytic Data Dashboard.)

The UO has recently qualified as an “emerging HSI” designation. “Emerging HSI” is a status given to institutions that have at least 15% Hispanic enrollment and become eligible for various forms of support to assist them in attaining HSI status. As of April 2022, the university’s undergraduate enrollment is currently at 14.6%. We hope to soon begin the process of officially applying for “Emerging HSI” status.

The percentage of Hispanic students at the UO is an excellent start. However, approximately half of it is due to out-of-state Latinx students. The actual number of Latinx Oregonians being served is closer to eight percent of total undergraduate enrollment. Our primary objective is to boost the enrollment of Oregon Latinx students – the population we are charged with serving. According to a 2016 Oregon Community Foundation report, Oregon’s Latinx population is growing at a rate faster than the national rate: 12 percent of the state’s population is now Latinx, representing 72 percent growth since 2000. But Latino/a/x and Mesoamerican Indigenous and Afro-descendent youth make up nearly one in four students and are the largest nonwhite population in the state, and this number only continues to grow. Latino/a/x and Mesoamerican Indigenous* students are already the majority population (over 50%) in ten school districts across the state. In light of the growth of the Latinx population in the state of Oregon, the university is committed to raising enrollment of this population.

While the Taskforce is deeply committed to seeing the UO increase its enrollment of Latinx students, equally important is supporting those students once they have arrived. While it is uncertain when the UO will hit 25% Hispanic enrollment, we believe that the process of moving towards this goal will hopefully engender a cultural change in the institution to make it more receptive and supportive of all underrepresented students.