“¡Vamos Knights!” spreads across the side of a UCF shuttle bus at the UCF Superstop, reminding students about the university’s Hispanic-Serving Institution initiatives.
Felix Rodriguez
The U.S. Department of Education announced Sept. 10 a cut to approximately $350 million in discretionary funding to Hispanic-Serving Institutions, affecting over 300 colleges and universities across the country — including UCF.
As president of the Latino Medical Student Association at UCF, Nikary Cortez works to help underrepresented pre-med and nursing students access campus resources and ensure fair treatment for Hispanic and Latino patients.
Cortez is pursuing the Hispanic-Serving Healthcare Professionals Certificate, which aims to “prepare students to provide better healthcare to Hispanic and Latino patients while considering their unique cultural and linguistic needs,” according to the UCF College of Nursing.
Courses for the certificate are offered through Project Educating Nurses for Engagement, Research, Mentoring Excellence and Reinforcing Interpretation Access (ENFERMERÍA) — a UCF project funded through the Promoting Post-Baccalaureate Opportunities for Hispanic Americans Program under Title V, part B. That funding is administered by the U.S. Department of Education to HSIs.
But a recent decision by the department could strip away these courses and funding for HSI projects entirely.
In the Sept. 10 news release, the department stated that the racial quotas in the HSI programs are “unconstitutional.”
“To further our commitment to ending discrimination in all forms across federally supported programs, the Department will no longer award Minority-Serving Institution grants that discriminate by restricting eligibility to institutions that meet government-mandated racial quotas,” Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said.
To qualify as an HSI, a college or university must have an enrollment of at least 25% Hispanic undergraduate full-time enrollment.
UCF is one of 28 HSIs in Florida and received its first federal recognition in January 2019. As of 2024, Hispanic students made up more than 31% of the university’s undergraduate population, according to UCF Student Enrollment data.
Dr. Devon Jensen, associate professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Higher Education at UCF, helped develop UCF’s HSI designation when he served as associate dean in the College of Graduate Studies. He said those who support the programs argue that cutting them is a civil rights issue because it removes funding that increases access to higher education.
“Anytime an institution is being publicly funded, the federal government has a right to withhold or take away that funding if the institutions are deemed as not upholding the parameters of the Higher Education Act,” Jensen said. “Because they’re now changing the policies around the Higher Education Act as it relates to minority-serving institutions, any institution not abiding by that can then lose its funding.”
Dr. Annabelle Conroy, associate lecturer and undergraduate coordinator in UCF’s School of Politics, Security and International Affairs, said she believes universities are the grounding rhythm for students in vulnerable situations and losing federal funding would make that harder.
“It’s so sad,” Conroy said. “Education is probably the most important factor in economic advancement and providing opportunities, and I believe that the funds should go to benefit all students who want to go to college.”
UCF Assistant Vice President for Communications Chad Binette declined to comment on behalf of UCF’s HSI Leadership.
The university received between $500,000 and $2.99 million of federal funding for the 2024-2025 academic year from the HSI Division of the Department of Education, managing three grant programs: Developing Hispanic-Serving Institutions (Title V, Part A), Promoting Post-baccalaureate Opportunities for Hispanic Americans (Title V, Part B) and HSI STEM (Title III, Part F).
Title V, Part A awarded $2.99 million in federal funding for the UCF Project Promoting Opportunities that Enhance Navigation, Completion, Inclusion and Learning (POTENCIAL), which seeks to enhance students’ success and increase timely graduation rates for Hispanic and low-income students.
Title V, Part B funded $2.73 million for UCF’s Project ENFERMERÍA, while Title III, Part F designated funding ranging from $500,000 to $1.8 million, divided into UCF’s HSI Implementation and Evaluation Project and the National Science Collaborative Research.
Each initiative focuses on improving academic quality, expanding research opportunities and providing better resources for students pursuing STEM degrees, according to the Department of Education.
“One of the most troubling things is that a lot of the funds being cut are STEM programs designed to encourage more Hispanic and Latino populations,” Conroy said. “There’s traditionally been less Hispanics in those fields.”
Yadiel Valdés, senior criminal justice major and public relations officer of the Puerto Rican Student Association at UCF, said that losing HSI programs would be disappointing, especially in underserved communities like Orlando. He said it could reflect poorly on colleges and universities as a whole.
“I think it would undermine the trust in higher education,” Valdés said. “I feel like it would just maybe push away more kids to not even try to go to school. If, for example, I don’t have these resources or if I don’t have anybody offering me a helping hand or something so I can succeed in life, why am I even going into this institution in the first place.”
Valdés said he is trying to get involved with CREAR Futuros, an HSI-sponsored program that connects freshmen with knowledgeable and highly trained upperclassmen peers and mentors.
“They give students a way to develop themselves professionally,” Valdés said. “It would help having a good peer-to-peer mentor for kids who don’t speak nearly as much English and would give them a guideline of what to do next regarding their future.”
As a first-generation student from Venezuela, Cortez said she feels the impact of how HSI funding supports UCF students like her.
“They’ve just been really helpful,” Cortez said. “The entire thing is about wanting to help the first-gens, wanting to help the Hispanics on campus. It’s really showing you that they still care, even though all of these things are in place, all of the DEI has been removed, like we’re still here and they’re still fighting for us.”
Cortez said that although the threat to HSI programs is disheartening, it motivates her to continue in the medical field.
“Just because the government doesn’t want any of us to succeed, doesn’t mean that there aren’t others that want us to succeed,” Cortez said.