Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Hispanic enrollment could qualify UNLV for millions in grants

UNLV is already known for being an ethnically diverse campus, but it’s on the verge of hitting a major milestone.

UNLV President Len Jessup told a Las Vegas Metro Chamber of Commerce gathering on Tuesday that the university had reached a Hispanic student enrollment of 25 percent, becoming the first four-year institution in Nevada to do so.

The news means UNLV is now classified by the U.S. Department of Education as a Hispanic-serving institution, a designation that could qualify the university for a slew of federal grants.

The College of Southern Nevada announced in February that it had crossed the 25 percent threshold, becoming the first higher education institution in the state to do so.

Interim Vice Provost for Diversity Initiatives Rainier Spencer has been heading recent diversity efforts at the university, including the one that got UNLV federally classified.

“These are multimillion-dollar grants we could use to hire advisors, build portable classrooms, hire Spanish-language specialists,” Spencer said.

The only federal stipulation is that the university use the money to improve student services.

“It’s really up to our imagination on what we can do,” Spencer said. “It’s going to be valuable for all students.”

UNLV still has one hurdle left to clear before it can apply for the grants. It has to show the Department of Education that it has maintained 25 percent Hispanic enrollment for at least two years in a row. If the college maintains the required enrollment in the fall 2015 semester, it could be eligible to receive grants as early as 2016, Spencer said.

More than half of UNLV’s undergraduate students report being members of a racial or ethnic minority, according to the university.

It is tied with the University of Hawaii-Manoa as the sixth most diverse college in the country in U.S. News and World Report’s annual rankings.

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