In the first week of Donald Trump’s second term, the Department of Education’s (DOE) Hispanic Serving Institution webpage was gone.
Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI), initially recognized by Congress in 1992, are establishments of higher education with Hispanic and Latinx full-time student enrollments of 25% and up.
At LPC, 31% of students identify as Hispanic or Latinx.
More general data — like how, as of June 2024, 161 higher education institutions in California were HSIs — is accessible via sites like the University of California System. Or the page for HSI’s membership association, the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities.
Or the DOE’s HSI site. But it’s missing.
Accessing the link directs users to a new page, empty apart from a box with the statement: “This site has been archived or suspended.” It has yet to be publicly determined which.
The site’s present digital closure comes alongside confusions amid federal funding freezes.
The Trump administration is actively reviewing loan and grant programs for unwanted progressivism — recipients of fiscal aid deemed too woke to continue to receive government spending.
Spending that, among other critical public services, is applicable to education. And grants like the one Las Positas College received in Nov. of 2024.
Awarded by the Department of Education (DOE), the $2.998 million grant was provided to assist Hispanic and Latinx students and help develop HSI programs initiated by the school and district.
Funding from the grant is scheduled to be exploited annually, based on performance, over 5 years.
A federal judge, on Jan. 28, blocked Trump’s project to freeze federal funding. But the order, like DOE’s webpage for Hispanic Serving Institutions, is impermanent.
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Top photo: Linda McMahon, wife of professional wrestling promoter Vince McMahon, is President Donald Trump’s pick for Secretary of Education. (Photo by Ian Kapsalis / Special to The Express)
Olivia Fitts is the News Editor and Opinions Editor for The Express. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter @OLIVIAFITTS2.
