SAN MARCOS — Palomar College’s new math programs, which offered bilingual tutoring and in-class academic support, lost federal funding after the U.S. Department of Education ended Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) grants nationwide.

The Department of Education announced on Sept. 10 that it would eliminate all funding for Minority-Serving Institutions. Palomar was awarded a five-year, $3 million Title V HSI grant last October, supporting new initiatives to improve math placement, retention, and transfer success for first-generation and underrepresented students.

The department’s decisions resulted in the cut of funding for the remaining four years, approximately $2.4 million, placing those programs at risk.

According to a presentation shown by Martha Martinez, the math retention faculty lead for the project, the new program had two major components.

The first, called Holistic Onboarding, included opening a Bienvenidos (welcome) center, providing bilingual outreach support, hosting community-based parent workshops, using culturally informed design to enhance a sense of belonging, expanding credit for prior learning, and implementing a CRM system to track students’ progress.

The second component, Intentional Academic Interventions in Math, run by Martinez, focuses on improving placement into appropriate math pathways and providing bilingual tutoring.

Palomar previously offered pre-college-level math courses for incoming high school students. These were removed after the implementation of AB 705 and AB 1705, which now place students directly into higher-level math courses. The grant-funded programs were aiming to bridge the gap created by those policies and the removal of remedial math.

The HSI grant called for hiring five embedded bilingual tutors for two calculus classes, totaling 10 tutors, according to Martinez. So far, only five tutors and three math coaches have been hired to assist students in those courses.

“The main idea is that we want to support these two calculus classes through embedded tutoring,” said Martinez. “The benefit of having a tutor in the class is that the tutor is now familiar with the way the instructor is teaching and is able to provide better support outside of the class.”

Due to the sudden approval of the grant, the hiring and training process began only in the spring and summer of this year, meaning the math intervention program officially launched this fall.

Even so, Martinez said the program is already seeing more engagement and showing results.

“The embedded tutors and math coaches in our calculus classes for example, are helping every student in those classes, regardless of their ethnicity,” said Martinez. “The fact that the tutors and math coaches are bilingual will increase the likelihood that they can connect with our Latino students but won’t prevent them to engage effectively with the rest of the students in those classes.”

Palomar has been an HSI since 2017, and reports show that 51.1% of students identify as Hispanic. The current grant funding of $3 million was approved on Oct. 1, 2024, and was intended to be distributed over five years ending on Sept. 30, 2029. The Title V project goal was to improve outreach, onboarding and academic strategies to increase retention and completion for first-time Hispanic college students.

The U.S. Department of Education’s decision followed its choice not to defend the HSI grant against a lawsuit in Tennessee. The Students for Fair Admission challenged the constitutionality of the HSI program.

“Discrimination based upon race or ethnicity has no place in the United States,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon in a Sept. 10 press release. “To further our commitment to ending discrimination in all forms across federally supported programs, the Department will no longer award Minority-Serving Institution grants that discriminate by restricting eligibility to institutions that meet government-mandated racial quotas.”

The Department deemed the racial and ethnic quotas to be unconstitutional and argued that these programs primarily serve Hispanic and minority groups.

“People don’t realize that the grant, even though it is designated for the Hispanic student community to support them again with programs or spaces, that a lot of it really is open to or benefits all students across campus” said Rodolfo Jacobo, the chair of the Ethnic Studies Department.

The Minority-Serving Institutions program was established in 1965 with the passage of the Higher Education Act (HEA), which recognized federal support for colleges serving underrepresented communities. It is broken down into categories like HSI and others for underrepresented communities.

Hispanic-Serving Institutions began to emerge in the late 1980s and early 1990s as Hispanic enrollment grew faster than the number of Hispanic faculty and resources, according to College Wise. HSIs gained federal funding and recognition in 1992 under the act, allowing the U.S. government to provide additional funding to institutions with at least 25 percent Hispanic enrollment.

Over the years, the grant has been used to establish a student success center at the Escondido campus, as well as to provide educational outreach, counseling, and guidance to Hispanic and low-income students in STEM fields. It was also used to strengthen the Palomar STEM transfer pathway, specifically in math.

They have also funded the Summer Bridge, First-Year Experience, and Learning Communities programs. Alongside the Escondido campus, these grants have helped establish the Mathematics Learning Center, ESL computer labs, and Teaching and Learning Centers at the San Marcos campus.

“We have students from various populations that are not Hispanic or Latino, that have benefited from HSI status,” said Robert Moreno, governing board trustee at Southwestern College. “It’s impacted the college as a whole.”

“I just hope that we’re able to find our path again, you know, in terms of how we can see each other in a different light, you know. But esperamos,” Jacobo said

In response to the federal decision, Chief Diversity Officer Nicole Belisle emphasized that the college’s mission will remain unchanged even without federal funding.

“This change will not alter Palomar’s commitment to maintaining our designation as a Hispanic-Serving Institution,” Belisle said in an email response. “Our dedication to serving all students, including Hispanic/Latinx students and disproportionately impacted students, remains central to our mission and strategic priorities. We welcome every student and respect the diverse backgrounds and experiences that enrich our campus community.”