According to the the Title V website, the purpose of becoming a Hispanic-Serving Institution is to “increase the number of Hispanic and other low-income students attaining degrees in the fields of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics; and to develop model transfer and articulation agreements between two-year and four-year institutions in such fields.”
Changing ethnic demographics at SF State have the University on the verge of becoming a federally recognized Hispanic-Serving Institution.
In an effort to bolster diminishing financial support from the state, SF State is hoping to to gain access to federal funds by using data to prove its diversity, as it seeks the title of a Hispanic-Serving Institution.
The University is asking students to declare their ethnicities in order to potentially gain funds from the U.S. Department of Education, and will be sending out an email in the next few weeks to remind students to mark their ethnicity if they have not done so, University spokeswoman Nan Broadbent said.
“There are many things that are served by receiving this designation,” Lisbet Sunshine, director of government and community relations, said. “One is joining a group of universities around the country that are similarly designated, another is the funding, which would benefit the entire campus, and it (the designation) does acknowledge the diversity that exists on this campus, which is something we celebrate and promote. It’s just one more additional acknowledgement of the diversity.”
In order to qualify as a Hispanic-Serving Institution, SF State needs to have “at least 25 percent of the full-time equivalent undergraduate student body to self-report as Hispanic,” Broadbent said.
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