Texas A&M University
IN-31: Serving Underrepresented Students

Texas A&M has been designated as a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) by the U.S. Department of Education. The designation provides schools with access to additional funding to promote the success of Hispanic students as well as students from other underserved communities. The priorities that most directly benefit students are highlighted in our HSI priorities under “Transformational Education” and “Celebrating the Aggie Way”.

In November 2021, Texas A&M was recognized as an HSI by the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU), which represents more than 500 institutions in the United States, Latin America, Spain, and school districts throughout the U.S. HACU defines an HSI as “colleges, universities or systems/districts where total Hispanic enrollment constitutes a minimum of 25 percent of the total enrollment, including full-time and part-time students whether at the undergraduate or graduate level of the institution, or both.

”In contrast to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Tribal Colleges that automatically receive federal funding based on their institution’s mission, HSIs are eligible to compete for Title III and Title V funding to assist in meeting the goals of a specified institutional development plan. These HSI funding opportunities can be found on the Division of Research’s website."

Our university partners have been engaged with the campus community and colleagues at HSI research universities across the U.S. to establish strategic priorities for Texas A&M University. Dr. Elsa Gonzalez, assistant provost for Strategic Educational Partnerships and Dr. Emma Perez, Associate Director of HSI Initiatives have been hired to provide oversight for HSI grant activities, enhance our state and national connectivity to organizations that support HSIs, and provide strategic guidance to HSI working groups charged with developing select initiatives. The identified list of initiatives represents proposed strategies for aligning our goals of improving servingness (as defined by the American Council on Education) with new Texas A&M priorities and are not intended to be exhaustive or linked exclusively to grant activities. Many of the initiatives could be implemented using currently existing resources.

Texas A&M also became the 21st member of the Alliance for Hispanic Serving Research Universities. The 21 universities in the Alliance represent every university that has been both categorized as R1 (very high research activity) by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education and designated as a Hispanic Serving Institution by the U.S. Department of Education.  

The HSRU Alliance aims to achieve two key goals by 2030: 1) Double the number of Hispanic doctoral students enrolled at Alliance universities, and 2) Increase by 20% the Hispanic professoriate in Alliance universities.