Maryland’s first — and only — Hispanic Serving Institution’s cautious next steps

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In 2021, Montgomery College was named the first, and only, Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) in Maryland, a federal designation for colleges with a Latino enrollment of at least 25%. The designation sparked an internal push for ways to improve the Hispanic student experience at the school, and potential access to federal grants to do so.

Today, it’s still an HSI, one of 645 such schools nationwide. Nearly one in three students currently at the college – or 29.8% – identify as Latino, making it the school’s largest minority.

But the U.S. Department of Education in 2025 deleted the HSI page from its website. It ended $350 million in grants that same year, claiming that awarding the funds to Hispanic schools is discriminatory and unconstitutional. At the time, Montgomery College had two grants in the pipeline, but like its sister institutions, it was cut off from funding.

College President Jermaine Williams sees his role at the helm of an HSI to ensure equitable access for all students.

“That means meeting students where they are. That means listening to students and the residents who we seek to serve to identify what their lived experiences have been, what they are currently maneuvering through, so that we can best support them in our learning places and spaces and in our academic support learning places and spaces,” he said.

Williams created an HSI Task Force to guide those words. Its 2024 report called for measurable data to put in place evidence-based learning strategies, recruitment of Latino faculty, administration and staff, an increase in multilingual supports, and regular input from and accountability to the Latino community about growing educational and workforce needs among Hispanics.

One of the authors of that report said the task force has received little feedback on its implementation since it was delivered. Campus officials said the recommendations of the report have been woven throughout the curriculum, to benefit all students

Graduation indicators

Montgomery College is the largest community college in Maryland with 18,000 students enrolled in for-credit programs. Nearly 3,100 will graduate in separate ceremonies on Thursday and Friday. Williams points out key indicators of success, particularly among Latinos.

“Our [Hispanic] enrollment grew to almost 6,000 [last fall], the number of Hispanic employees has also risen, from 493 to 544, and three-year, first-time-in-college graduation rates have been rising for all students, with a 2.1 percentage point change, and … a 3.7 percentage gain among Hispanic students,” Williams said.

Among those success stories is Diane Carrillo, who grew up with her father’s family in New Mexico, and sees her future in the footsteps of her grandmother, a county commissioner deeply engaged in politics.

“I’ve known [about] those things since I was a little girl,” she said.  “So, I want to be a policy maker or a lobbyist.”

After high school Carrillo began her studies in criminal justice, but as a single mother of two, and a move to Maryland, she put college on hold. That was until two years ago when she enrolled in Montgomery College.

In her first semester she joined the Latino Student Union, and would later serve as editor of the student newspaper and as an officer on both the Inter Club Council and Student Activities Board.

Carrillo plans to head to the Universities at Shady Grove to finish her undergraduate studies.

HSI embedded in strategic goals and plans

Karen Penn de Martinez, a longtime computer applications professor at the college was a co-author of the Hispanic Task Force report, working alongside dozens of contributors including faculty, staff, students and members in the community. She says they have gotten little feedback on the report, its recommendations or implementation. She says a change in leadership in the office that was guiding implementation, may have held it back.

“I think there [is] a sense that some of the action steps were lost in the cracks,” she said.

Gigi Secuban now heads what had been the Office of Equity and Inclusion as vice president of Inclusive Excellence and Belonging. Advocates, like Penn de Martinez are calling for a public-facing HSI implementation plan, but Secuban says the college does not routinely publish internal reports as standalone public documents.

“The [HSI] recommendations are being integrated across Montgomery College’s broader strategic efforts including student success planning, enrollment strategy, academic planning and community engagement initiatives,”Secuban said. “This work is about institutional transformation – ensuring all students have clear pathways, meaningful support and equitable opportunities to thrive.”

A word search of the Montgomery College 2025-29 Academic Master Plan, the Montgomery College Strategic Plan, The Student Enrollment Plan, and Transformational Aspirations framework that Secuban refers to make no mention of Hispanic Serving Institution, Latino or Hispanic.

Follow the data

Penn de Martinez drills down to specifics.

“I’m thrilled that the college now has a dashboard where you can go online and see how [students] are doing in particular courses, with the data ethnically disaggregated,” she said.

But if that data shows, “as it did in spring 2025, that 49.1% of Hispanics got a DFW [a grade of D, F or withdrew] in Biology 150, an entry-level course for those wanting careers in healthcare, what steps is the college taking to reverse that trend?” Penn de Martinez said.

“The real question is always, so what are you doing? Is someone calling your attention to [the fact] that there’s an issue with the data in your course or in your department, and are you being encouraged or empowered and solicited to do something about it?” she asked.

Secuban says a new pilot counseling program will be introduced at a larger scale in the fall that may help address those issues. Other initiatives include multilingual learning materials that center student voices, particularly those of immigrant and refugee students.

That could apply to first generation immigrant Noah, Carrillo’s friend, who asked that his last name be withheld because of deportation fears for his family. He and Carrillo met as student members of Montgomery County Sister Cities, which partners with El Salvador, where both he and Carrillo have family ties.

He is returning to Montgomery College after a 10-year absence and recovery from an accident on a construction site. He wants to better serve the Latino community as a mental health worker, eventually as a psychiatrist. He writes for the student newspaper and plans to join student government. In those roles he hopes he can lift Latino voices, their needs especially during the current political moment.

“I feel that the college could do better in speaking to those students who might not have [legal] documents,” he said.

Noah recalls an incident where some students and professors were stopped from handing out know-your-rights cards.

“As a higher education institution, the college is not a substitute for legal counsel or community-based support organizations,” college spokesman Marcus Rosano said of the incident. “What we can do is ensure students are treated with dignity and respect, connect them with trusted campus and community resources, and follow established policies and procedures designed to support student safety and privacy.”

Noah said he would like town hall meetings, something he remembers from when he was first a student at the college.  “We  would like better dialogue with the administration to know that they support us,” he said.

Penn de Martinez thinks the Hispanic community on campus “would like to hear more and collaborate on how the report recommendations are being implemented.”

As part of a group of college peers called Advocacy for Latino Access and Success – or ALAS, Spanish for “wings” – she says, “We have a modestly growing contingent of Latino faculty and staff – that continue to work for these goals.”

“We stand ready to be a part of that ongoing dialogue with the college,” she said.

Rosanne Skirble is a freelance writer who lives in Silver Spring.