This is the first book to exclusively address Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs), filling a major gap in both the research on these institutions and in our understanding of their approaches to learning and their role in supporting all students while focusing on Hispanic students. Born out of the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act of 1992 and are classified as such if their enrollment of Latino students account for a quarter of their undergraduate enrollment, the number of HSIs and their impact in higher education is growing. Today there are approximately 370 HSIs, 277 emerging HSIs, and their numbers are steadily increasing. Given the projected growth of the Latino population, and HSIs’ record of advancing the success for Hispanic students in STEM fields, as well as of graduating nearly a third of all Hispanic bachelor’s degree recipients, their work has important implications for higher education at large.Written by leading and rising scholars on HSIs, this book offers insight into the complexity of these institutions. It not only addresses historic policy origins, but also describes the experiences of various student populations served, faculty issues (i.e., governance, diversity, work/life experience, etc.), the impact of student affairs in advancing student development, and considers funding and philanthropy efforts. The book also critically examines challenges that many of these institutions face – disjointed mission statements regarding support of their Latino/a student populations, governance structures that support the status quo, and the financial incentive to achieve HSI designation that may not correlate with enhancing the climate for Latinos. This book touches on the many facets of HSIs, painting an organic mosaic of institutions in position to advance Latino postsecondary progress, both chronicling the contemporary challenges that these institutions face while also looking to their future.

Latino Change Agents in Higher Education offers college and university leaders a practical guide for meeting the challenges of educating the burgeoning population of Latino students. The contributors, a stellar group of experienced leaders in higher education, clearly show that the changes to higher education needed to ensure Latino student success will benefit all students.

Incorporating the voices of faculty, staff, and students, Becoming Hispanic-Serving Institutions asserts that HSIs are undervalued, yet reveals that they serve an important role in the larger landscape of postsecondary institutions.

Now the largest and fastest-growing ethnic population in the U.S., Latino students face many challenges and complexities when it comes to college choice and access. This edited volume provides much needed theoretical and empirical data on how the schooling experiences of Latino students shape their educational aspirations and access to higher education. It explores how the individual and collective influence of the home, school and policy shape the college decision-making process. This unique collection of original scholarly articles offers critical insight on educational pathways that will help families, educators and policy makers intervene in ways that foster and sustain college access and participation for Latino students. It considers destination preferences and enrollment selections, elementary and secondary school experiences, and intervention programs that shed light on how practitioners can promote participation and retention. This multi-conceptual, multi-methodological volume offers directions for future research, programming and policy in Latino education.