DeKALB – NIU is on the path to becoming a Hispanic Serving Institution. The university currently holds the title of an emerging HSI and a few more steps must be completed before it receives the official HSI title. 

An HSI is an institution with at least a 25% Hispanic student enrollment while meeting other qualifying criteria, according to Vice President and Chief Diversity Officer, Carol Sumner. 

Such qualifications include holding at least a 33% pell-eligible student population, and over 50% of all students must meet or receive need-based financial aid with the cost of attendance below a set threshold. 

NIU met the 25% enrollment requirement during the fall 2023 semester, making the university eligible to become an HSI for the first time.

Sumner said a large part of NIU becoming an HSI is not only keeping that 25%, but preparing NIU to accommodate and sponsor a larger Latino population.

“The word to focus on is ‘serving,’” Sumner said. “Serving is where it benefits students, faculty, staff, administrators and community in what we are doing as an institution. It is about an institution’s commitment and demonstration through evidence, practices, data (and) proof of students being successful. Not just enrolling them but seeing them able to achieve, earn degrees (and) create research opportunities. The serving is the way through which the institution helps its students, faculty and staff achieve their goals.”

As co-chair of the HSI planning workgroup with Sumner, Director of the Latino Resource Center, Luis Santos-Rivas, said the LRC is a major factor in NIU’s Latino student retention.

Santos-Rivas said the LRC’s role is being a central meeting place for Hispanic students where they can find a “home away from home.”

In addition to running the center, Santos-Rivas along with LRC staff hold events for NIU’s Latino population throughout the year.

“We are very involved in what is the Latino population on campus,” Santos-Rivas said. “So now that we are nearing HSI, so our present have to be more aware for all those Latino population.”

A plan to introduce more Latino faculty to NIU will be part NIU’s transition to become an HSI. Graduate assistant and LRC clerical, Alannis Muñoz said she is excited to see more diversity within NIU’s staff compared to her former community college.

“I never had a Latina professor until my first semester of college, but when I came here, I didn’t think I had that much diversity as I thought I would,” Muñoz said. 

Muñoz originally studied at Elgin Community College, a current HSI, and said she was surprised with the differences in resources provided for Latin student groups at ECC compared to NIU.

“When I came to NIU, I didn’t get that same treatment because NIU expected me to pay more and more, rather than my community college,” Muñoz said. “They (ECC) paid for almost everything that I would have, like conference room supplies – and that was at a community college level.”

With an HSI designation, NIU will be eligible for grants including Title V, along with grants designated to support low-income and under-represented groups. Specific grants will aid mentoring, STEM, summer bridge and tutoring programs, along with funding specifically towards Latino student organizations and faculty.

While NIU will be eligible for grants, the university will still be competing with other universities that have been HSI’s for years.

“It’s gonna be very competitive, but that’s when we as an institution, we have to move forward and show our, how do you say, our skill to improvise and to be creative,” Santos-Rivas said.

Muñoz hopes students can be more involved in the HSI process with focus on allocated funding for Hispanic student organizations and mental health resources for Latino students.

“I know we have CCS (Counseling and Consultation Services), but there’s a huge difference with our culture when it comes to mental health, and I think that might be a big one that we could focus on as well,” Muñoz said.

NIU is not expected to hold a HSI title until 2025, due to the Department of Education’s two-year delay on student enrollment data provided by the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System. The university will submit an application in Spring 2025 using data from Fall 2023 to approve the official HSI designation.