How Whiteness Operates at a Hispanic Serving Institution: A Qualitative Case Study of Faculty, Staff, and Administrators

Approximately two-thirds of Latinx college students attend Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs). Despite the growing number of HSIs, these institutions often fail to result in better educational outcomes and success for Latinx students. As such, more research is needed to explore factors that may hinder HSIs in their ability to support Latinx students. Whiteness-defined as the invasive system of White supremacy that permeates society-is systemically embedded throughout higher educational systems. However, little research has explored the specific ways that whiteness may influence the construction and maintenance of HSIs by senior administrators, staff, and faculty. To address this gap, the present study centered theories from critical whiteness studies (Nayak, 2007) and Garcia's (2018) decolonizing HSIs organizational framework to assess 4 how whiteness operates at a recently designated HSI. We used a critical qualitative case study design that included thematic analysis of 14 student affairs staff, faculty, and senior administrator interviews and document analysis of public-facing institutional materials. Results indicated three predominant themes related to how whiteness is maintained by senior administrators, staff, and faculty, including the rhetoric of all as a tool of White appeasement, the taxation of bodies of people of color, and whiteness through good intentions. The study concludes with recommendations for identifying and disrupting whiteness at HSIs, including specific recommendations at the individual and institutional levels.