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Cal Poly is on its way to becoming a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI), but as it moves to boost Latino student enrollment, other underrepresented student groups are questioning whether similar efforts exist for them. 

Since the creation of the HSI Task Force in 2022, Cal Poly has been aiming to acquire HSI status to be granted access to resources and funds only available for HSI status colleges and universities. 

In fall 2024, Cal Poly reached a Latino/Hispanic enrollment of 25%, accomplishing the first step towards HSI status. This enrollment has continued through fall 2025, with 28.8% of enrolled students being Latino/Hispanic, according to Cal Poly Institutional Research. 

Despite moving in the right direction, questions are being raised by other students about whether the enrollment of other underrepresented groups is being pushed in the same way. 

“I don’t think we’re sidelined because we were never in the game,” said Izzy Pérez Pedraza, vice president of the Black Student Union (BSU), when asked if he believed Black students were being sidelined to make room for other underrepresented groups. 

Among other programs led by the Department of Culture and Institutional Excellence (CIX), previously the Office of University Diversity and Inclusion, is the Black Student Success Initiative, which is a collaboration between CIX and the Office of the Provost.

The Initiative claims to seek to address Black student, faculty and staff reports of “cultural isolation, underrepresentation, and bias,” according to CIX’s webpage on BSSI.

What remains to be seen is whether the initiative is working. As it stands, the percentage of Black students enrolled in Cal Poly in 2025 is 0.8%, according to Cal Poly Institutional Research. This is up from 0.5% in 2020. 

“I do think part of it is due to the BSSI, but I wouldn’t give it the main focus,” said Pedraza. 

According to the BSSI webpage, the Initiative seeks to increase Black presence on campus through cluster hiring and increased K-12 outreach; however, Pedraza said that even the cluster hires seem to be more white-passing.

“Even when we have these systems in place to, you know, diversify our portfolios of staff members, for some reason they still end up being white,” said Pedraza.

He pointed out how the psychology department has just hired its first Black faculty member and how the political science department doesn’t have any Black faculty. 

“Staff and faculty that look like us. Curriculum that speaks to us,” is what Pedraza thinks true diversity looks like for him and for the BSU. 

He expressed that aspects such as staff, faculty and curriculum that speak to the “diverse mindsets and diverse experiences of students” are crucial yet lacking at Cal Poly. 

Mustang News asked CIX to make a comment on the subject and directed Mustang News elsewhere for information on the subject.

When asked to make a comment, university spokesperson Keegan Koberl wrote in an email to Mustang News that “the university continues to prioritize attracting a diverse pool of applicants in order that our enrollment should, as closely as possible, reflect the demographics of the state we serve.” 

He added that the university acknowledges there is work to be done and pursues “continual improvement in our efforts.”