John Sauer, the U.S. solicitor general, on July 25, 2025 made a determination based on the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment that it was unconstitutional to provide government mandated initiatives to give funding for Hispanic-Serving Institutions. This was startling news to not only Goshen College, but to the Goshen community as well. 

GC was designated an HSI in 2023 by the U.S. Department of Education, after the percentage of students identifying as Hispanic grew from just 2% in 2007 to 30% when the designation was given. 

GC was primarily using the funding from the initiative to provide the Academic Success Center with the resources it needs to aid GC students, but due to the cuts on the federal level, the ASC has had to make some changes to the way it operates. 

ASC staff “are all somewhere between three-quarter time and point nine, so we’re still here most of the time,” Michelle Blank, senior director of the Academic Success Center said. “We will be closed pretty much the month of July … which will mean some things internally for us … but it will not affect the students,” she continued.

A third of the ASC staff was lost due to the HSI cuts, and those who remained switched from a 12-month contract to an 11-month contract, leading to the eventual one month closure in July. 

“We won’t be able to do as much dreaming because there’s just not bandwidth for that now,” Blank said. 

A major use for the HSI grant funding was to provide help to students who needed textbooks for classes. As of the date of publishing, no students have had to be turned away, but the impending possibility of just that is not lost on the ASC staff.

The ASC was also planning on renovating the second floor of the Good Library, expanding their operation and providing an updated space for students to learn and study in. 

A third part of the funding was going towards faculty development. “We’ve lost the ability to connect with faculty for development on working with Hispanic students and all students, there was a mentoring component in there,” Gilberto Pérez Jr., vice president for student life, hispanic serving initiatives and dean of students said.

“As a college … we’ve said that we’ve been in the business of serving minoritized students for decades … and we’ll continue serving students for a long time,” Pérez Jr. added. 

He also expressed concern for the community of Goshen, as supporting minority students from the area has a long-term benefit on the ability to thrive as a town. “We know that our Latino students that are commuters who graduate, a large portion of them stay in the region,” Pérez Jr. said. 

The cuts to the HSI funding have had a large impact on Goshen thus far, but the ultimate impact is yet to be seen. However, GC has expressed a commitment to maintaining the best interests of campus and continuing to support Hispanic-identifying students for years to come.