By Shreya Mishra, UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism
When Samantha Ramirez began planning Sacramento City College’s first Tardeada festival in September, she envisioned a joyful afternoon of music, food and art to mark the college’s legacy as a Hispanic-serving institution.
The celebration coincided with Hispanic Heritage Month, a time to uplift the Latino community and highlight its many cultures. But in the weeks leading up to the event, Ramirez received news that would dampen the spirit.
The Trump administration had cancelled $350 million in grants to Hispanic-serving institutions. For California community colleges, the loss would amount to $26.4 million. Among the many things those grants had covered was the Tardeada festival, putting the event’s future in jeopardy, along with other Sacramento City College programs.
Ramirez, a student services expert with the college’s Caminos De La Ciudad or City Pathways program, said the announcement wasn’t unexpected. The college had received similar orders from the federal government earlier this year to end all DEI activities, but it was unclear what the fund cancellation meant for ongoing programs, Ramirez said.
“So the best way I can describe it to you is like we were flying an airplane without having it built and not knowing if it was going to be finished,” Ramirez said.
More than 90% of community colleges in California are Hispanic-serving institutions, meaning a minimum of 25% of their students are from Hispanic communities. This designation has allowed colleges to apply for federal grants of up to $600,000 annually for five years to build counseling centers, offer tutoring services, and organize programs that help Latino and other minority students earn college degrees. The Trump administration has called the grants “discriminatory” and “unconstitutional.”
In a July letter to Congress, the solicitor general said the 25% racial quota required for HSI grants violates the Constitution. The Department of Education said it will redirect this funding to programs serving under-resourced students that do not rely on racial quotas.
“The federal government’s announcement to reduce discretionary funding for Minority-Serving Institutions will have a detrimental impact on the students who depend on us,” California Community Colleges Chancellor Sonya Christian said in a Sept. 11 news release.
Contra Costa College project stalled
Esperanza Hernandez was in preschool when she first became part of the HSI grant in 2010, without her even realizing it. She used to come to Contra Costa College with her mother, who was taking English language classes. Teachers encouraged Hernandez’s mother to put her daughter into a free tutoring program from preschool to high school.
Esperanza Hernandez posing outside main library at Contra Costa College, San Pablo.Shreya Mishra/UC Berkeley
Fifteen years later, Hernandez is still benefiting from HSI grants: She participates in career counseling programs funded by the grants, putting undergraduates in touch with graduate students and professionals who can offer academic guidance.
“When you’re a first-generation student, your parents can not help you with many things,” Hernandez said. “When you come here, a lot of the teachers come from similar backgrounds, so they can relate to you on that personal level.”
Andrea Paz, one of Ramirez’s students from Sacramento City College, found that to be true. Paz will be the first in her family to go to nursing school, opening the college door for her five siblings.
She would have missed the deadline if not for Ramirez, who worked with her for months on arranging all the documents and essays required for the application, Paz said.
“Cutting this funding strips away critical investments in under-resourced and first-generation students and will destabilize colleges in 29 states,” David Mendez, interim CEO of the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities, said in a September news release. “This is not just a budget cut, it is an attack on equity in higher education.”
Mendez noted that the grants didn’t just support Latino students, but strengthened campuses by creating opportunities and resources, especially for students pursuing STEM fields.
Engineering maker’s space room at Contra Costa College, Richmond.Shreya Mishra/UC Berkeley
In the past 15 years, Contra Costa College has received three HSI grants that helped expand its services. A 2016 STEM grant paid for a new space to provide vocational training in science and engineering. After that was completed, STEM major enrollment increased by 64% in 2017, said Mayra Padilla, dean of institutional effectiveness and equity.
“The facts are that these grants have served students of all backgrounds and had outcomes that have had positive impacts on our social structure, our GDP and innovation as a country,” Padilla said.
Earlier this year, the college began setting up an ethnic studies department for Hispanic and African American students as a permanent center to learn about cultural heritage. The effort began with a 2020 HSI grant. With just a few books on the shelf, the center has been stalled because of the funding cuts. The college had hoped to get another HSI grant to continue the project.
Los Medanos gets a new grant
The Department of Education was accepting applications from HSIs for this fiscal year until early August, a month before the grant was cancelled. Los Medanos College, which is in the same community college district as Contra Costa, had been expecting $600,000 in grants to set up transfer programs and distance learning courses for students who enroll but have a hard time finishing their degrees.
Rosa Armendariz, senior dean of diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging, said she heard the news from the press release and did not receive any direct communication from the Education Department regarding the sudden shift in policies.
“It felt like a slap in the face,” Armendariz said.
The most apparent impact of these cuts has been the loss of jobs, said Gina Ann Garcia, a professor at UC Berkeley School of Education and faculty director for Latinx Thriving Initiatives, serving Hispanic students on the UC campus.
“Many of the HSI grants have been defunded as of September 30th, and people have lost jobs, both full-time jobs, full-time HSI directors and a lot of student jobs,” Garcia said in an email.
Hughes Stadium, earlier known as the Sacramento Stadium, serves the college’s athletics team Panthers, at Sacramento City CollegeShreya Mishra/UC Berkeley
Employees left in limbo
As the only full-time staff member in Sacramento City College’s City Pathways program, which is funded by HSI grant money, Ramirez worries about losing her job. With the grant lost, she has put her dream of buying a house on hold.
Despite the setback, the administration has assured employees like Ramirez that it will seek other funding sources to keep programs going.
Community colleges also can use $60 million allocated in the state budget to help cover costs related to serving students, said Chris Ferguson, executive vice chancellor of finance and strategic initiatives at the California Community Colleges chancellor’s office.
A Sacramento City College spokesperson said that even if other funding resources can be tapped, it will be difficult to continue engaging with students in a meaningful manner without federal funding.
Through HSI grant-funded programs, Ramirez and others say they have been able to build trust with community college students and help them navigate obstacles to their education. With the funding gone, Ramirez is working to keep that trust alive.
“It’s important for me and my students to continue my work,” Ramirez said. “So I show up every day and I do my job until they tell me I can’t.”
This story is part of “The Stakes,” a UC Berkeley Journalism project on executive orders and actions affecting Californians and their communities.
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