How Three Bronx Institutions are Intentionally Hispanic-Serving

In April 2023, Manhattan College in Riverdale, New York, passed a significant threshold. The four-year, Catholic private school officially became an Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI), meaning over 25% of their undergraduate population are Latinx. The school is now eligible for Title V HSI funds that can support student recruitment, education, sense of belonging, and completion.

Interim Provost Dr. Rani Roy says the school has already applied for two HSI grants and will find out in October whether they’ve been accepted. But being an HSI isn’t “just about passing the 25% threshold — it’s about intentionality,” says Roy.

Manhattan College has been classified as an emerging HSI for years, says Roy. Emerging HSIs have a Latinx undergraduate enrollment rate between 15% and 24.9%. Data gathered by Excelencia in Education, a nonprofit organization working to improve and accelerate Latinx student success in postsecondary education, showed that in 2021, there were 401 emerging HSI institutions across 43 states.

Demographic changes have led to an increasing number of Latinx students attending higher education. The 2021 Latinx population in the U.S. totaled 62.5 million, just under 20% of the U.S. population representing a 13% growth from the year 2000, according to the Latino Policy & Politics Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles. This population is anticipated to continue to grow — by 2060, the U.S. Latinx population could reach 111.2 million, or 28% of the total population.

Manhattan College joins the ranks of 570 HSIs in the U.S., including 34 HSIs in New York City. The presidents of Manhattan College, Lehman College, and the College of Mount Saint Vincent, three Bronx-based HSIs within roughly 16 square miles of each other, all agree that taking on the identification of HSI means more than just representing the demographics of their surrounding neighborhoods. The Bronx is home to over one million people, 56% of whom are Latinx, according to 2020 U.S. Census data. Being an HSI means offering relevant pedagogy, targeted support, community uplift, and a dedication to the unique experiences of their Latinx students.

The Bronx

Dr. Fernando Delgado“The Bronx has been a landing place for immigrants, a place where people who want to make their way into and through New York City often start,” says Dr. Fernando Delgado, president of Lehman College, a City University of New York (CUNY) institution in the Bronx that has held the distinction of HSI for 35 years. “In some ways, being an HSI was going to be inevitable by virtue of the percentage [of Latinx residents]. The distinction is, do you embrace the identification? Do you make other choices as an institution, when your intent is to become Hispanic serving, to intentionally serve these students?”