Published November 6, 2025
BY ZANA BALABAN
When the federal government announced Sept. 10 that it would terminate funding for Hispanic-Serving Institutions, designated by having at least a 25% Hispanic undergraduate population, college faculty and students were thrown into uncertainty. The move wiped out grants that, since their creation under the Higher Education Act of 1992, have helped level the playing field for students at more than 615 colleges across the country.
As the state with the highest concentration of HSI-designated campuses (171), a significant proportion of California colleges are losing funding. At three local institutions–Monterey Peninsula College, Hartnell College and California State University, Monterey Bay–these grants have boosted course completion rates, expanded student enrollment, increased internship opportunities and supported countless programs that promote equity and career development.
The new Mechatronics Engineering program at CSUMB, led by Luis Cabrales, utilized HSI funding to get off the ground, but will now have to scale back on internships, lab equipment and other “game-changing” resources. courtesy of CSUMB MECHATRONICS ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT
The cuts arrived with striking timing, according to professor Lindsay Peelman, head of MPC’s HSI-funded Work Experience program and business department chair.
“Education has been nationally under attack the whole year,” Peelman says. “What’s sad in specific about this is that the federal administration cut funding for all minority institution programs, and then they rolled it back and said they would only end program funding for HSIs. It seems significant that this occurred in the middle of HSI week, during Hispanic Heritage Month.”
The narrative from the Trump administration frames HSI grants as unfairly favoring Hispanic students, calling them “radically discriminatory” in a press release by the U.S. Department of Education, a characterization that Peelman and other educators reject. With her doctoral research focused on increasing internships at HSIs, Peelman’s statistics point at benefits and opportunities for not just one demographic, but benefiting the school as a whole.
“The story some people want to tell is that these are unfair grants,” she says. “The outcomes speak for themselves: Latino students now have equitable access, and overall participation has grown across all demographics. This is precisely how HSI grants are meant to function, addressing inequities while creating opportunities that lift an entire community.”
Current CSUMB student Gerson Orellana Prudencio is just one example among these statistics. Under Peelman’s Work Experience program at MPC, Prudencio completed a paid internship at the Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula in hospice care, an experience that changed his career trajectory.
“The government is playing it as if the grants only serve a certain demographic of students, but when I walk into these classrooms, the students are low-income, undocumented, white, Asian, African American and so on,” says the first-generation student. “It’s a service that is inclusive, not exclusive.”
MPC’s yearly Family STEM Day uses HSI funding to connect with the community and foster engagement with their programs. The event will take place Nov. 15, with no guarantees for next year. courtesy of MPC STEM DEPARTMENT
After transferring to CSUMB, Prudencio began serving on the HSI student advisory board. Committed to catering to everyone, not only the Hispanic demographic, but supporting career development, personal growth and resource accessibility. With such a heavy involvement in the topics of education and advocacy, last month’s cuts felt personal to Prudencio.
“This is an attack on my community, my college,” says the student senator, who traveled to Sacramento in March with the CSUMB lobby corps to advocate for California college budget protections. “We were relying on these services and experiences. How could the federal government think HSI grants are discriminatory when, if they look at the research and statistics on how colleges are using the money, the answer is clear?”
At each local college, the grants have supported and even started inclusive programs designed to provide opportunities for students who haven’t been given a “leg up” in life, according to Peelman.
At CSUMB, Luis Cabrales, chair of the engineering department, explains how HSI grants were at the center of launching and maintaining the school’s one-year-old mechatronics engineering major.
“We used the grants to create and renovate the engineering labs and pay for all the equipment, staff and faculty salaries, professional development and internships for students,” says Cabrales, who came to CSUMB two years ago to get this program off the ground. “These elements were game-changers for the students, especially as a new engineering program.”
Cabrales notes that while smaller private grants can help bridge some gaps, the loss of HSI funding will force the program to scale back key components like paid internships and lab resources.
Also grappling with a newly limited budget is the science, technology, engineering and math program at MPC, which had operated under an HSI grant for five years, during which course completion rates rose to 61%, a big step for their program.
Without any federal funding, Herbert Cortez, associate dean of STEM programs, says they won’t be able to afford the activities that increased their success.
“This period of uncertainty required us to reconsider embedded tutoring in the classrooms, community outreach to the middle schools, and work-based learning experiences,” says Cortez. “What’s left is only a scaled-down version.”
Nearby, Hartnell College faces the loss of more than $1.19 million in HSI funding, hitting several cornerstone projects. The college’s Ánimo Grant will not disperse money this school year or in 2026-27. HSI grants have supported a variety of programs, including student retention, STEM and other internships, support programs such as the Math Academy and dual enrollment, which has expanded exponentially to 12 high schools and one adult school, according to director of communications Richard Morales.
Reallocating funds to keep programs afloat will be the next major test. The money has to come from somewhere for programs like those led by Cortez and Cabrales, and the coming months will determine which services survive, no easy task for any institution.
“I had never seen this type of grant cut, anywhere,” says Cabrales, who had previously run California State University, Bakersfield’s engineering program and oversaw a decade of renewals for their HSI funding. “These are very unprecedented times.”
While the suddenness of the change left little time to prepare, it didn’t come as a complete shock. Prudencio explains that the HSI advisory board had been bracing for impact for the last few months, and Cortez notes that MPC began reducing acceptances to the STEM program this summer.
“The federal administration is creating daily chaos at public institutions,” says Peelman, who reports experiencing the chaos herself. “People who need to be doing their jobs, working the budgets and paying bills are just spinning wheels worrying about these things and trying to be proactive. You have to wonder, is this administration doing this on purpose to slow progress?”
Though the cuts have deepened political and racial tensions, local educators and students remain committed to supporting equity and opportunity.
“We are a Hispanic-Serving Institution because of the community we represent,” says Morales, echoing a sentiment shared across the Peninsula. “While the federal designation allows us to apply for grants and funding opportunities, it does not define how we currently serve, or will serve, our students. That commitment existed long before the designation and will continue, regardless of funding.”
