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Since the 1990's, the federal government has allocated funds to Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) to through the Title V, Developing Hispanic-Serving Institutions program. However, this program has become increasingly competitive such that less than half (40 percent) of all eligible HSIs received Title V funds in 2020. The competitive nature of HSI federal funding has increased the importance for HSIs to plan effectively for grant competitions and utilize funds in a sustainable manner that supplements existing institutional efforts. The increasingly limited reach of federal funding has raised questions regarding how institutions participate in HSI federal grant programs and the impact these programs have on sustaining institutional practices that facilitate Latino student success. "Excelencia" in Education interviewed six HSIs to understand how these institutions have participated in HSI federal grant competitions, specifically the Title V and HSI STEM grant programs. The institutions shared their current strategies for preparing federal grant applications, how they have leveraged federal funding to advance and sustain institutional efforts, and what it means to them to be an HSI. From the interviews, the HSIs demonstrated strategies that can refine the way policymakers and HSI advocates approach the way they support HSIs. The implications of the institutional practices shared in this brief may inform how other HSIs strategize their own federal grant participation strategies and inform the U.S. Department of Education (ED) in how their grant application and evaluation processes look in practice.

Over the last five years, Puerto Rico has faced fiscal and economic disruptions, demographic shifts, hurricanes and earthquakes, governance challenges, and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. While most of these conditions are not new to Puerto Rico, the intersection of all these challenges created a nexus for institutional resilience and efforts. This brief is the second phase of a multi-tiered project--the first of which was an environmental scan of conditions and context of the population, K-12 educational pipeline, higher education, and workforce in Puerto Rico that "Excelencia" published in 2021. While this brief is not meant to be exhaustive of the experiences of institutions and students in Puerto Rico, it is indicative in a broader sense of institutional resilience and transformation to meet their mission and goals to serve their communities with a quality education. "Excelencia" in Education engaged five Puerto Rican HSIs in a series of interviews to learn more about their efforts in resilience in the last five years: (1) Inter American University of Puerto Rico-Arecibo; (2) Universidad Ana G. Méndez-Gurabo; (3) University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez; (4) University of Puerto Rico-Río Piedras; and (5) University of Puerto Rico-Utuado. [For the environmental scan report, "Higher Education in Puerto Rico: Conditions and Context Influencing Institutional Resilience," see ED614617.]