A year after Cal Poly announced it reached 25% of Latino student enrollment — a key step in obtaining Hispanic-Serving Institution status — the university hosted its ¡Adelante! HSI Symposium on Monday, Oct. 6, to provide updates and discussion on what it means to serve the community.
While progress is still to be made at Cal Poly before the university reaches its official HSI designation, the event did not shy away from addressing the looming threat of federal government proposals to end Minority-Serving Institution grants like HSI, as well as airing out fears of racial profiling and detainments by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The Department of Education has called many of these Minority-Serving grants “racially discriminatory” for their exclusivity towards certain ethnic groups, though Beya Makekau, vice president for DEI strategic planning and networks, thought otherwise.
“It’s not exclusionary, it’s our responsibility,” Makekau said.
One of the student panelists, business administration senior Ketzali Maciel-Jimenez, said it’s hard to ignore events like ICE raids and plans by the federal government to defund HSI grants that are happening outside Cal Poly’s campus.
Citlali Luna-Silva, a psychology major and student panelist at the event, also wanted the university to speak up about incidents of ICE arrests that have had an effect on the Latino community.
As for the university’s mission to become an HSI, Luna-Silva added on to a sentiment that most of the panelists shared Monday.
“We are not just a number, we are people,” Luna-Silva said.
The university’s HSI Symposium featured speeches and updates from speakers like Cal Poly President Jeffrey Armstrong, ASI President Marc Cabeliza and Makekau of DEI strategic planning and networks.
A panel discussion and Q&A also included current Cal Poly students who spoke about what it means to be an HSI, and what the university can do to serve them and other Latino students on campus.
A keynote speech, workshops and a concert were all hosted later throughout the day.
Cal Poly HSI Updates
Although the status of HSI is uncertain at the federal level, Cal Poly reaffirmed its mission and commitment to serve Latino students at Monday’s event.
In his speech, President Armstrong pointed to how 31% of the university’s recent incoming class were Latino, and added that the Cal State system as a whole is at full HSI status after the integration of Cal Poly and the formerly known Cal Maritime — previously two of the only school in the system without an HSI designation.
Cabeliza, the ASI president, spoke about what serving the Latino community meant for him and the importance of going beyond the 25% threshold of total Latino student enrollment required for HSI status.
Makekau walked through the university’s framework for supporting Latino students, which she said goes beyond measuring academic outcomes and includes non-academic end results as well as validating the experiences of those in the community.
In 2024 at Cal Poly, 68% of all first-generation students were Latino, along with 51% that were pell grant eligible and 40% of which were transfer students, according to data Makekau provided at the event.
While 6.8% of faculty at Cal Poly were Latino in 2024, the university shared that its cluster hire efforts brought in 13 new employees and several diverse courses this fall including Criminalizing Immigrants and Intro to Latinx History, according to data from Makekau.
Makekau also announced that applications for the university’s HSI Mini-Grant program opened Monday, which are funded through the Office of University Diversity and Inclusion (OUDI) for projects related to achieving HSI designation.
HSI Student Panel
Alongside student panelists Maciel-Jimenez and Luna-Silva were Erandy Fernandez-Ortiz and Xavier Aguilar, as well as moderator Cristian Ulisses Reyes.
The panel addressed much of the support the students have received during their time at Cal Poly from various clubs and groups on campus like Puente and the Latinx Business Student Association.
Each panelist also noted ways the university can continue to improve its support of Latino students.
“I love Cal Poly, but I know it can be better,” said Fernandez-Ortiz, an ethnic studies and experience industry management sophomore.
Fernandez-Ortiz said she previously avoided talking about Cal Poly to her peers back home due to its history of being a predominantly white institution. Now, she feels prideful of the university and its efforts towards diversifying the community.
Ulisses Reyes, a master’s student in higher education counseling, mentioned the impact of student voices within the decision-making process for the university when it comes to initiatives that impact them like becoming an HSI.
“Stop making decisions without us,” Ulisses Reyes said, quoting himself from last year’s HSI Symposium he also spoke at.
Aguilar, a liberal studies major and panelist, added that although the university may support Latino students through events like the symposium and Hispanic Heritage Month, it shouldn’t stop there.
“Highlight us more than just today,” Aguilar said.
