Persistence Priorities and Financial Servingness in an Emerging HSI

As the demographics in the United States' college going population continues to shift, the number of HSIs grows annually, yet research in higher education indicates a difference between enrolling Hispanic students in great numbers and serving the Hispanic/LatinX population [1], [2] Servingness is embodied in structures and practices that constitute HSIs, and is manifested in the acts of institutional agents who interpret policy, advocate for students, and access resources on behalf of students. This paper describes the findings from an initial case study of a public US east coast Emerging Hispanic Serving Institution recently funded by the National Science Foundation to provide scholarships for high-achieving students with great financial need. In an effort to understand financial barriers students face in attending college in a post-pandemic context, the first author interviewed key stakeholders at EAST STEM University. The research question driving the study was: How is EAST STEM changing its infrastructure to develop diverse support structures that serve students? Data for this pilot case study were collected from unstructured interviews with the lead faculty member of the grant in the computer science department, document analysis of institutional data (e.g., contextual data from the US Department of Education, publicly available information from Excellencia in Education, institutional profile data from the Institute of Educational Statistics), and from formal interviews with key stakeholders across the university. Interviews were transcribed and coded using emerging themes with Dedoose software. The staff interviewed in this study span five administrative offices and academic departments. Findings from this case suggest the institutional goals of promoting diversity and increasing persistence were values that aligned with the acts of servingness utilized at East STEM University to advocate holistically for student needs [3]. Interviews with institutional agents indicate two ways the institution supported student progression through the major-through human resource allocation and through financial prioritization for equity. Within this institutional context, institutional agents enacted servingness through their emphasis on equity and persistence priorities, with, in some cases, a critical lens supportive of student success[4]. Key to their efforts in promoting persistence for students were three actions-creating space for one-on-one engagement with students, advocating on students' behalf across multiple administrative offices, and adapting and reinterpreting policies to support continued student enrollment. This study illustrates how institutional agents aligned serving with a key institutional initiative, and shows how that alignment created space for innovation in meeting undergraduate students' financial needs.