Ten community colleges and universities in Arizona will lose at least $13 million after President Donald Trump’s administration cut discretionary funding to minority-serving institutions, alleging the money was tied to “discriminatory racial and ethnic quotas.”
The cuts—described by one grant administrator as a decision made with “little to no concern about the students”—are forcing some schools to end student support programs that improved grades and reduced dropped classes, while shrinking staff dedicated to underserved populations.
Federal data shows 23 Arizona schools met the 25% Hispanic enrollment threshold to qualify for Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) grants this year, more than most states. Many have much higher shares of minority students and are required to serve a large percentage of low-income learners. Arizona is also home to two Native American-serving nontribal institutions (NASNTIs), or schools where at least 10% of enrollment is Native American.
Achieving minority-serving institution (MSI) status does not guarantee a school additional federal funds, but it allows them to apply for grants designed to increase student success through tutoring, mental health support, personalized advising and other services.
Nearly half of Arizona’s 25 eligible MSIs lost discretionary Education Department grants when the cuts were announced. Two of those schools did not respond to AZCIR’s request for information about affected grants, meaning the total loss will likely be well over $13 million.
“It is a huge and devastating impact,” said Mike Hoa Nguyen, principal investigator of the MSI Data Project at UCLA, noting that the cuts will disproportionately affect low-income, first-generation students. He called the abrupt loss of resources for those learners “horrible and misguided.”
“The way that it’s been done, and the framing of it is just—to me—it’s just cruel,” Nguyen said.
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The cuts are not the first blow to MSIs under the Trump administration.
In July, the Justice Department said it would not defend the constitutionality of HSIs in a lawsuit brought by Tennessee against the Education Department. D. John Sauer, solicitor general, wrote in the decision that “the government lacks any legitimate interest in differentiating among universities based on whether ‘a specified number of seats in each class’ are occupied by ‘individuals from the preferred ethnic groups.’”
Advocacy groups like the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities say the status is “race-conscious but not race-exclusive,” arguing it ensures federal resources are split equitably and that funds are used to help all students, not just those in one demographic.
In early October, Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs sent a letter to Education Secretary Linda McMahon urging her to restore MSI funding, calling the institutions “part of the fabric of Arizona’s higher education system” and estimating potential losses at $18 million.
As of the 2023–24 school year, Arizona HSIs alone enrolled about 194,000 full-time undergraduates, including 63,000 Hispanic or Latino students. Nationwide, MSIs serve millions, with one in five colleges qualifying for the designation.
“I’m really stunned that money would be taken away from these institutions when they educate over 50% of students of color,” Marybeth Gasman, executive director of the Rutgers Center for Minority Serving Institutions, told AZCIR. “It’s mind-blowing to me that that’s the case.”
Most of the Arizona schools that received funding in the 2024-2025 fiscal year were awarded grants around $3 million each over a five-year period, or about $600,000 annually.
The University of Arizona, which reported a Hispanic or Latino student population of 26% last fall, received an HSI grant in 2023 that it planned to use to expand career readiness offerings, professional development fellowships and a writing program for freshmen. The program, Project ADELANTE, was expected to benefit more than 1,800 students, UA said in an announcement that year.
UA declined to comment on how the abrupt end to funds will impact its offerings and programs, and would not say how much of the promised funding will no longer be distributed. A records request seeking information about HSI grants was unfulfilled as of Oct. 19.
Northern Arizona University received about $500,000 of the $3 million grant it was awarded in 2024. Officials also declined to discuss the status of the remaining funds with AZCIR, saying they are “still trying to figure out details moving forward.”
NAU used its grant to launch Comunidad, Cultura y Conexión (C3), a program for first-generation and Hispanic and Latino students that provides a range of supports aimed at improving their odds of post-grad success, according to the funding announcement.
Sophomore Ale Ortiz Leyva, a peer mentor in the program, said supervisors told her that it would not continue past its first year. She wasn’t surprised.
“I knew that this was a reality that could happen under this administration,” Ortiz Leyva told AZCIR. “It was just disappointment and frustration that a program that I know is doing a lot of good—because I work with the students one-on-one—is no longer going to exist.”
A first-generation Latina student, Ortiz Leyva said there were times her freshman year when NAU felt “isolating” and “foreign.” She has seen the program help students adjust to campus life and find stronger community, allowing them to better succeed in the classroom.
“There is a lot of culture here and there is a lot of diversity, but it takes programs like this for you to realize that, and I think that’s the thing that these students benefit the most from,” she said. “They just feel a little safer.”
Pima Community College, where Latino and Hispanic students make up about half the student body, told AZCIR it has four grants at risk. That includes a $3 million Title V grant for Hispanic-Serving Institutions, of which about $1.8 million was canceled.
In a statement to AZCIR, Pima spokesperson Phil Burdick said school officials are advocating for funding to be restored and trying to minimize student disruptions. But “it is clear that the long-term sustainability of programs at Pima Community College cannot depend on uncertain state and federal funding streams,” he said.
Five HSI grant recipients were housed within the Maricopa Community College District, which received notices of cancellation for four active grants totaling nearly $5 million—including one HSI STEM grant at Glendale Community College that was believed to be protected, mandatory funding. A district spokesperson told AZCIR nearly 10,000 students will see fewer support services as a result.
“The value of our work, the value of our impact on students doesn’t seem to be at the forefront of their agenda,” said Rachelle Clarke, grant administrator at Rio Salado College. She described the cuts as a “shock.”
Clarice Wziatek, an academic life coach at Rio Salado whose position is funded by the grant, said she has helped countless students in the past two years figure out the right course of study and create plans for their futures. She reaches out to them if they’re struggling, and introduces them to resources they often didn’t know existed.
Early data from her program shows success: Students who participated withdrew from classes less frequently, got fewer failing grades and saw GPAs climb by 20%. “The coaching is really about helping them find their grit, their resilience, their growth mindset, and inspiring them to fulfill the goals that they’re laying out,” Wziatek said.
Chandler-Gilbert Community College’s grant similarly funds four specialists who work closely with students and one analyst. The school received a no-cost extension from the government allowing it to use remaining funds for one year, but officials said they only have enough for about six months.
Moving forward, the college will be able to keep just two specialists, and their workload will rise from 350 students each to about 700, according to Laura Latimer, grant administrator at CGCC.
“You cannot double a case load and be as effective. It’s just, the math is not there,” she said, adding the specialist-student relationships will also likely become less personal.
She said the decision to cut funding reinforces misconceptions about the grant program and HSI status, which Latimer maintained is about helping schools better serve all students and communities. “Student success should not be politicized. Supporting a community should not be politicized. Creating a skilled workforce should not be politicized,” she said.
Other schools losing funds across the state include Central Arizona College, South Mountain Community College, Mohave College, Arizona Christian University and Northland Pioneer College.
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Northland Pioneer, one of Arizona’s two Native American-serving nontribal institutions, received $946,000 in the first three years of its grant cycle. The community college, where 29% of students were American Indian or Alaska Native in fall 2023, used the money to launch an online virtual student center, offer mobile computer units and strengthen ties with tribal colleges, among other supports.
Though the school will no longer receive nearly $659,000 it was expecting, spokesperson Katie Matott told AZCIR that Northland Pioneer plans to implement all of the grant’s projects using other funds.
Coconino Community College, another NASNTI school, received a 2021 grant classified as mandatory funding, which meant it was spared in the recent cuts. But Tony Williams, vice president of student services at CCC, said he does not expect NASNTI grants as currently structured to be available next year—and he “can’t imagine what it would be like to not have that resource.”
“We’ve seen an increase in our Native American student population. We’ve seen academic success in that population go up as a result of that work,” Williams said, adding that losing targeted funding will impact the quality of education for all students, not just the Indigenous ones.
“If our underserved student population is beginning to be more engaged in the classroom, performing at higher levels, success rates go up,” he said. “And when we are all engaged on equitable footing, the power of that dialogue, the power of the learning, is profound, transformative.”
