Contact: Dr. Rowena M. Tomaneng
President of APAHE
apainhighered@gmail.com
www.apahenational.org

Asian Pacific Americans in Higher Education (APAHE) strongly condemns the recent decision by the U.S. Department of Education to end discretionary funding for Minority-Serving Institution (MSI) designations, including Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institutions (AANAPISI) and Native Hawaiian-Serving Institutions (NHSI). This action represents an unprecedented attack on educational equity and undermines decades of bipartisan progress in advancing opportunity for historically underserved students and communities.

AANAPISIs and NHSIs, like other MSI designations, including Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU), Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI), Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCU), Alaska Native-Serving Institutions, Native American Serving Nontribal Institutions (NASNTI) and Predominantly Black Institutions (PBI), were established by Congress to recognize and address the systemic inequities that students of color and low-income students face in higher education. 

“AANAPISIs and NHSIs serve as a vital lifeline for Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AA&NHPI) students, one of the fastest growing yet most underfunded and overlooked populations in higher education,” said Dr. Galvin Deleon Guerrero, President of Northern Marianas College.  At AANAPISIs and NHSIs across the nation and in the Pacific, federal funding has supported academic programming, financial aid and advising services, mental health programs, civic engagement, and research initiatives that directly contribute to student persistence, degree completion, and workforce preparation.  These efforts have transformed lives and strengthened the nation’s economic and civic fabric.

“To characterize MSI designations as ‘racial quota” is a deliberate distortion of both the law and the lived reality of students, as the overwhelming majority of AANAPISIs, NHPIs, and MSIs are highly under resourced and open-access or broad-access institutions with already high enrollments of underrepresented students.  Stripping away these funds threatens to widen racial and economic inequities in higher education and beyond,” said Dr. Rowena M. Tomaneng, President of APAHE.

APAHE stands in solidarity with our MSI colleagues and communities across the country.  We reject the Department’s reckless action and will fight back through advocacy, coalition building, legal, and policy avenues to ensure that MSIs, including AANAPISIs and NHSIs, continue to receive the resources they need to serve students.

For nearly two decades, AANAPISIs and NHSIs have demonstrated that when colleges and universities are resourced to meet the needs of underserved AA&NHPI students, the results are powerful: higher retention, stronger graduation rates, and more equitable access to opportunity.  The elimination of these funds is not only a betrayal of students and families, but also a betrayal of our nation’s commitment to fairness, equity, and justice.

We call on Congress, higher education leaders, communities, and our students across the country to reject this dangerous action and to affirm, once again, the vital importance of AANAPISIs, NHSIs, and MSIs in advancing equity in higher education.