This page was updated in September, 2024

Since its launch in 2016, the Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) initiative has been a strategic institutional priority. One of the primary goals of HSI is to increase our Latinx undergraduate enrollment to 25% of the student body. But the initiative is about more than just enrollment numbers; this endeavor is about making Marquette a more welcoming and inclusive space for all our diverse stakeholders. HSI speaks to the very heart of our values as a Jesuit institution: to serve the traditionally underserved, to provide care for each of our students, and to strive for inclusive excellence.  

Through community and alumni engagement, diversifying our curricular and co-curricular programming, promoting educational opportunities to explore issues related to race and bias, and linguistically and culturally responsive outreach, recruitment, and support, HSI efforts - and the tireless efforts of dedicated faculty, staff, and students - we are moving the needle in the right direction. Since 2016, we have made progress in the following areas:   

Engaging the Community

• Marquette has built upon past and ongoing work with local Latinx community organizations and schools through additional bidirectional partnerships, the creation of an HSI Community Advisory Board and as a founding member of the HSI Network of Wisconsin.
• The University Engagement team, in collaboration with the HSI initiative, launched the Hispanic Alumni Association in fall of 2019.
• Marquette also engages with national Latinx-serving networks, such as the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU), Excelencia in Education, and the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education (AAHHE).

Spanish Outreach and Family Connections

• Marquette vastly enhanced Spanish language outreach through the creation of dozens of Spanish webpages and engagement on social media (@SomosMarquette), where translated feature stories are regularly disseminated.
• Admissions and Financial Aid now each have two bilingual staff, and some additional Spanish language programming for SPARK and Orientation through New Student and Family Programs. Admissions events such as Somos Marquette and Sí Se Puede also welcome Spanish-speaking families to campus.
• Employees have opportunities to learn conversational Spanish through a faculty-led program and the Café con Leche discussion series.

Pre-College Programs

• Marquette boasts a robust infrastructure for pre-college programs through TRiO (Talent Search, Upward Bound, UB Math/Science), colleges/schools (Comm, Engineering, Law, Nursing), and Admissions.
• We have also built partnerships with our national Cristo Rey network to provide leadership summits and our local Cristo Rey Jesuit High School to offer near-peer mentorship through the Encuentros program.

Admissions/Recruitment

• The Office of Undergraduate Admissions has made strategic shifts in their practices to attract a broader pool of talented and diverse students, including programs geared toward first-gen, URM, and Spanish-speaking families, building relationships with community-based organizations, and the creation of bridge and transfer articulation agreements with two-year institutions.
• With a strategic focus on Milwaukee schools, Admissions has also created the Community Ambassadors program for near-peer outreach and hosts on-site admissions for 11 local schools.
• Between 2016-2020, the percentage of Latinx undergraduates rose from 10.6% to 14.8%. In the 2020-21 academic year, both the undergraduate and graduate student bodies reached the most diverse in the history of Marquette.  For current demographic information on Marquette University students, faculty, and staff, visit the composition dashboard.

Financial Aid

• In addition to the millions of dollars in financial aid that Marquette provides Latinx students, other efforts to support students financially have included the establishment of an Emergency Fund for low-income students, almost $500,000 raised for the Ellacuría Scholarship for undocumented students by 2023, and up to $30,000 in matching funds for Hispanic Professionals of Greater Milwaukee (HPGM) scholarships offered to Marquette students. 

Student Support

• We offer many programs that provide direct support for underrepresented students through RISE pre-orientation programming and near-peer mentoring, affinity group sessions at Orientation, robust support for student organizations and activities through the Division of Belonging and Student Affair’s restructured Office of Inclusion & Belonging.
• Many underrepresented minority, first-generation, and/or low-income students are supported through our many scholarship programs, such as Urban Scholars, Burke Scholars, and Engineering Scholars, and our Educational Opportunity Program.
• Support for undocumented students has grown through the Dreamers Support Committee, Dreamers Discussion Group, Dreamers Gala, a DACA reimbursement program, and the Ellacuría Scholarship (now endowed at almost $500,000).
• The Latin American Student Organization (LASO), Hispanic Professionals of Greater Milwaukee (HPGM), Sigma Lambda Gamma Sorority, and Sigma Lambda Beta Fraternity, among others, have long been established student organizations on Marquette’s campus. Recent student-led initiatives resulted in the formation of several new Hispanic/Latinx-focused student organizations: PALMA (Professional Association of Latinx for Medical School Access) and Paso a Paso, a Latin dance group.
• Students also have the opportunity to obtain sponsorships to attend national conferences as well as apply for travel grants to engage in study abroad opportunities through the WINGS Scholarship.

Faculty/Staff Diversity

• The HSI initiative supported the launch of the cluster hiring process for the Center for Race, Ethnic, and Indigenous Studies (REIS), which resulted in a total of 21 tenure track faculty hires over three years, who bring critical expertise to the university, including in the area of Latinx Studies. 
• We support equity-minded hiring practices through workshops for search committees and developed guidance aimed at increasing representation of underrepresented employees.  
• Between fall 2016 and fall 2020, the percentage of faculty of color grew from 13.4% to 16.9% and Latinx faculty more than tripled (from 18 to 57). The percentage of URM staff grew from 19.6% to 21.8% in the same period with the largest growth seen among Latinx staff (from 4.2% to 7.1%). For the most up-to-date information around faculty/staff diversity, visit the composition dashboard. 

Faculty/Staff Support

• Faculty Affairs has made intentional efforts to support URM and women faculty, such as through its FELOS and MILE programs. Initiatives such as the Community Engaged Scholars and the Summer Research Institute bring faculty together across disciplines.
• An infrastructure for Employee Resource Groups was created to support the retention of diverse employees.
• The Race, Ethnic, and Indigenous Studies program offers grant opportunities for faculty, such as the Advancing Social Equity research grants and grants for diverse course development.

Curricular Offerings

• An infrastructure for the Race, Ethnic, and Indigenous Studies (REIS) program is currently being built. 
• Latinx Studies created an intro class (required for a minor in the program) and several faculty with capacity to teach in Latinx Studies have been hired.
• The number of Spanish for Heritage and Native Learners (SHNL) sections has tripled and the SHNL program was formalized with a directorship and an undergraduate assistant. These courses now fulfill Writing Intensive Core requirements, and Spanish courses fulfill requirements in other programs such as Speech Path and International Affairs. The Literatures, Languages, and Cultures (LLAC) department also created a placement exam and intro SHNL course.

Culture Shifts

• Students and employees have access to a growing variety of opportunities to learn about inclusive and equitable practices and engage in dialogue around DEI and HSI efforts, such as HSI Days of Reflection, Unlearning Racism, Making Marquette Inclusive, workshops hosted by the Center for Teaching and Learning, and the Symposium on Diversity, Inclusion, and Social Justice.
• We seek to beautify and diversify our campus spaces through collaboration on the Cultural Audit. One physical manifestation of a changing campus culture is the Our Roots Say That We're Sisters campus mural and related podcast series.
• Marquette continues to monitor our progress toward creating a more welcoming, inclusive campus climate through the 2015 and 2020 Campus Climate Studies . The next campus climate study is slated to start in 2025.

We are proud of the progress being made, but the work is nowhere near done. We will continue to work to recruit, support, and graduate an increasingly diverse body of students at Marquette.  

For more information about the HSI initiative, please contact Dr. Jacki Black, Director for Hispanic Initiatives and Diversity & Inclusion Educational Programming, at jacqueline.black@marquette.edu.