Decolonizing Hispanic-Serving Institutions: A Framework for Organizing

Abstract

Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs), defined as non-profit, degree-granting institutions that enroll 25% or more full-time equivalent undergraduate students, now enroll over 60% of all college students, and confer 60% of all associate’s degrees and 40% of all bachelor’s degrees to this group (Cunningham, Park, & Engle, 2014; Excelencia in Education, 2016; Harmon, 2012). But as HSIs increase in significance, there is continual pressure to define what it means for postsecondary institutions to be “Hispanic-serving.” This article calls on scholars and practitioners to consider this question through a lens of decolonization.