Hispanic-Serving Institutions, or HSIs, are part of a cluster of federally defined “Minority Serving Institutions.” To become an HSI, an institution of higher education must have a significant proportion of low-income students and at least 25% of their full-time undergraduate enrollment needs to be Hispanic.

Once an institution achieves HSI status, they are eligible to apply for federal Title V grant funds. These grants are designed to expand and enhance the academic offerings, program quality, and institutional stability of colleges and universities that are educating diverse student bodies and helping a large number of low-income individuals complete postsecondary degrees.

As representatives from institutions of higher education, we are profoundly aware of the racial and ethnic disparities that exist in our region and we feel a deep responsibility to help bridge the educational opportunity gap in our community. The HSI model is one pathway that many of our institutions have recently decided to pursue in order to recruit and support an increasing number of underrepresented students.

Starting as an informal network of like-minded colleagues from various campuses in Milwaukee, we turned to each other for advice and support. As our network grew, we made a commitment to collaborate, rather than compete, to work toward the collective uplift of our community. Thus, in February of 2019, the HSI Network of Wisconsin was born with representatives from six institutions of higher education: Alverno College (Wisconsin’s first HSI), Marquette University, Milwaukee Area Technical College, Mount Mary University (Wisconsin’s second HSI), UW-Milwaukee, and UW-Parkside. We have since grown to include Carroll University, Gateway Technical College, UW-Stout, UW-Whitewater and Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design. We continue to welcome new members to the network.