California colleges on edge over suit challenging funds for Latino-serving campuses

Each year, most of California’s public colleges and universities are eligible for extra federal funding for a simple reason: They enroll high numbers of Latino students.

The federal government sets aside millions of dollars in grants annually for colleges it classifies as Hispanic-Serving Institutions, a designation earned by having an undergraduate student body that is at least 25% Latino. In total, California universities and community colleges have received more than $600 million in HSI grants since federal funding for the program began in 1995.

California, with its large Latino population, has the most HSI campuses in the nation — 167, or more than a quarter of the 602 HSIs in the country. That includes five of University of California’s nine undergraduate campuses, all but one of California State University’s 22 campuses, and the majority of the state’s community colleges.

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