EdTrust Recommends Ways to Better Support MSIs

By Jessica Blake

One in five American higher education institutions are designated as minority serving, and they collectively enroll about a quarter of the nation’s undergraduates, many of whom are first generation and low income.

The demand for these colleges is expected to grow, and leaders of the institutions say they need more funding and guidance to keep up.

A new report released Tuesday by Education Trust, a nonprofit policy and advocacy group, suggests that it’s time to better support these institutions and address historic underfunding by giving them more federal money and making grant programs more equitably accessible. That could happen by amending the Higher Education Act of 1965—a massive piece of legislation that governs federal financial aid programs and a range of other policies but that hasn’t been reauthorized since 2008.

“These institutions are doing the lion’s share of serving low-income students and students of color,” EdTrust senior vice president Wil Del Pilar said. “We need to be providing additional resources to these institutions as they continue to do more and more of the work of enrolling and graduating students of color.”

The study, titled “Updating the Higher Education Act to Better Serve Students of Color,” is based on a series of Zoom interviews with leaders from 22 different MSIs between March and November of 2022.

Based on those interviews, the advocacy group recommends generally increasing the amount of annual federal funding; acknowledging the varied types, sizes and locations of institutions in the selection process; and providing stronger technical assistance in both the application and implementation stage of grant programs.

Challenges Grow

The number of MSIs increased 18.9 percent from 2017 to 2021, growing from 597 to 710, according to a September report from the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association. That means that more institutions are competing for funds from two key pots of money, known as Titles III and V, that haven’t kept pace and are limited resources.

On top of that, there has also been a historic trend of underfunding at the state level. For example, when compared to predominantly white land-grant institutions, 18 historically Black colleges and universities in the South have received $12.8 billion less in state funding per pupil over the last three decades.

This leaves many institutions deferring maintenance costs and struggling to meet basic infrastructural needs.

“My daughter attended an HBCU [during the pandemic], and they were using the free version of Zoom, and so every 45 minutes, they would all get kicked out of their class and have to log back in because they didn’t have the institutional resources to buy the full version,” Del Pilar said. “Those are needs that we hear broadly. We don’t consider them very sexy, but they change the experience of a student.”

And still, despite these challenges, the report indicates that MSIs play a major role in the success of students of color and are significant contributors to the local and national economies.

Despite representing only 3 percent of institutions receiving federal aid, HBCUs are responsible for 17 percent of all bachelor’s degrees earned by Black Americans. Hispanic-serving institutions are similar—although they represent only 18 percent of all colleges and universities, they produce over half of the Latino degree holders. Now, as anti–diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in some states drive more students of color to enroll at MSIs, experts only expect the amount of pressure on these institutions to increase, Del Pilar explained.

“Think about what just happened this last year around affirmative action,” he said. “We’ve seen an increase, at least in some of the initial data, in enrollment at HBCUs and at MSIs broadly as students seek to go to campuses where they feel a sense of belonging. But those institutions don’t have additional resources to better serve those students.”

Policy Updates Needed

EdTrust argues the best way to better recognize these contributions is by updating the federal grant policies.

While some of the changes that can be made are predictable, like increasing the amount of funding (EdTrust did not specify an amount) or allowing greater flexibility for how the money can be spent, others, Del Pilar said, were more surprising.

One of the most notable requests from university leaders was to receive greater guidance on the grant application and implementation processes. For some, this could mean help navigating how to manage a grant as a first-time grant recipient. For others who have more experience in the application process, it may mean helping to differentiate the multiple types of grants received and figuring out what’s allowed under each.

Other changes could include recognizing different traits such as institution size, type and location during the selection process to avoid unfair competition. Currently, the competitive grant programs don’t distinguish between an R-1 public university or private institution and a community college. But it can be more difficult for underresourced colleges that lack a grant-writing team to craft a strong application.

“We’ve created an inequitable environment where we’re pitting two institutions, one with lots of resources and one with not as many resources, against each other,” Del Pilar explained.

Another challenge is that an institution can’t be designated as multiple different types of MSI when applying for grants. Currently, institutions can only apply for grants specific to one of the seven institution types. Some may have enough students from multiple different minority groups that in theory they could double dip, but current regulations force them to make a hard decision.

“It can pit communities on a college campus against each other and create what I’d argue is significant tension for campuses that are having to make decisions based on which one has a higher level of funding,” Del Pilar said. “If I have an HSI grant and no longer have an AANAPISI grant, you may have a population of students who no longer feel identified.”

Over all, EdTrust says, the goal should be amending dated policies to better meet the needs of 21st-century MSIs and the students of color they serve.

“As we invest in these campuses,” Del Pilar said, “we have to broadly educate and inform them of other federal opportunities that they may not be aware of that may help the experience of their students and their institution moving forward.”