91Ů, celebrating 26 years as a Hispanic-Serving Institution, is proud to join colleges and universities across the nation to recognize Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI) Week– a week that has been officially recognized by the White House in acknowledgement of the key role HSIs play in preparing Hispanic American scholars and the educators who make an impact in our communities. The observance occurs prior to National Hispanic Heritage Month, which is celebrated from September 15 to October 15.
On September 6, 2024, the White House issued a proclamation designating September 9-15, 2024, as National Hispanic-Serving Institutions Week. The Proclamation notes: “Education is a ticket to a better life, and for more than 4.7 million Hispanic and Latino students, Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) make it possible. The over 500 HSIs across our country are home to over half of Hispanic and Latino college students. During National Hispanic-Serving Institutions Week, we celebrate these critical postsecondary institutions, which empower our students to pursue the full limits of their talent and ambition.”
HSIs are defined as having 25% or more undergraduate Hispanic student full-time equivalent enrollment. In 2022-23, there were 600 institutions that met the definition of an HIS and collectively, they enrolled 66.2% of all Hispanic undergraduates and 31.7% of all undergraduate students in nonprofit postsecondary education, according to the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU). HACU led the effort to convince Congress to formally recognize campuses with high Hispanic enrollment as federally designated HSIs and to begin targeting federal appropriations to those campuses in 1992.
91Ů is the largest private, non-profit HSI and minority-serving institution in the New York region. In the Fall of 2023, approximately 48% of Mercy’s incoming class identified as Hispanic or Latino and 52.6% of undergraduate students identified as Hispanic. In September 2022, Mercy received national attention when it earned the prestigious Seal of Excelencia from Excelencia in Education, a national certification for intentionally serving Latino students. It was the first private college in the country, as well as the first HSI in New York State, to receive this certification.
Mercy is committed to serving and supporting Latino students intentionally, by creating the conditions that maximize their educational success. The University has invested in several transformational strategies to serve Hispanic students and position them to succeed, including its PACT personal mentoring program, which was designated a 2020 Example of Excelencia finalist. Since the advent of the PACT program, retention and graduation rates of Latino students at Mercy have seen remarkable improvement. 91Ů recently issued more than 500 bachelor’s degrees to graduating Hispanic students, the fifth most in the continental U.S. amount private HSIs and more than several of Mercy’s neighbors combined.
Hispanic enrollment at postsecondary institutions in the United States has grown significantly in the past decade and will continue to rise. According to HACU, Hispanic enrollment in higher education is expected to exceed 4.3 million students by 2026, far surpassing the growth rate of any other racial-ethnic group by over 10%.
"The promise of America is big enough for everyone to succeed — we just have to make sure we keep the doors of opportunity open. This week, may we celebrate the more than 500 HSIs, which support our Latino students, put new possibilities within their reach, and give them a fair shot at the American Dream," the proclamation states.
To read the full White House proclamation for National Hispanic-Serving Institutions Week, click .
To view the full list of HSIs and Emerging HSIs, click .