Of the 171 Hispanic-Serving Institutions throughout the state, two of them are right here on the Central Coast. But an executive order from the White House is now posing a threat to the funding that schools like Cuesta and Allan Hancock colleges can receive from the grant program.
On Aug. 25, Sen. Alex Padilla (D-California) issued a statement to the Trump administration, condemning its decision to rescind the Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) grant program that provides $350 million in funds to designated institutions throughout the country.
In his statement, Padilla said, “The Trump administration’s refusal to defend the Hispanic-Serving Institutions program will jeopardize the education of not only the two-thirds of all Latino college students who attend HSIs, but millions of students from all backgrounds who attend these important institutions across the country.”
New Times contacted Padilla for comment but did not receive a response before publication.
Trump initially rescinded the grant program in January, as HSIs were included in a list among numerous other previous “harmful executive orders and actions.”
“The previous administration has embedded deeply unpopular, inflationary, illegal, and radical practices within every agency and office of the federal government,” the January executive order said. “The injection of ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ (DEI) into our institutions has corrupted them by replacing hard work, merit, and equality with a divisive and dangerous preferential hierarchy.”
Funding for HSIs has been granted since the 1990s as a method to help Hispanic and low-income students achieve their academic goals. These institutions have at least 25 percent full-time enrolled Hispanic—or in California, Latino—students.
According to the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities, there’s a national total of 615 HSIs, 171 in California—Cuesta and Hancock colleges included.
In recent years, Hancock President Kevin Walthers told New Times, the Santa Maria community college has seen record numbers of science and math graduates, but it wouldn’t have been possible if it weren’t for funding through the HSI grant program.
“It’s unfortunate that a handful of people in Washington have decided that they want to exclude some people from higher education,” Walthers said.
More than half of Hancock’s students are Latino, Walthers said, and in 2020 the college received more than $4 million in HSI grants to build a new science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) center.
“And in doing that, we were able to do things like hire more faculty, bring in tutors, create programs, dedicate space on campus so that students who are in STEM fields have the ability to get the support they need to be successful,” he said.
Despite the Trump administration naming HSI “divisive,” Walthers said he saw it as just the opposite.
“It’s frustrating and disappointing because I was in Washington, D.C., in February meeting with staff and members of Congress from both parties, and we were consistently told, ‘Nobody’s going after the HSI designation. Nobody’s going after it because it was set up in a way that it serves the entire institution,’” he said.
When it comes to the college’s STEM center, Walthers said this still rings true.
“Your ethnicity and gender don’t matter, your major doesn’t even matter … you can go to the STEM center and get some support there,” he said. “But if you’re also going to be a chemistry major and engineering major, there’s a lot of resources in there to help you succeed in your classes.”
Alongside Hancock, Cuesta College has been an HSI since 2016, having then 33 percent Latino students. By Fall 2025, its enrollment records show that Latino enrollment has grown to 38 percent.
New Times contacted Cuesta representatives but did not receive a response before publication.
Cal Poly also has its sights set on being designated as an HSI but hasn’t yet met the requirements.
According to the Assistant Vice President for Communications and Media Relations Matt Lazier, the university met the 25 percent Latino student threshold in 2024 but must maintain that for two additional years.
“The university is pleased with the progress it has made toward becoming an HSI and will continue to work toward this important designation,” Lazier said via email. ∆
This article appears in Student Guide 2025.