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Here are the morning\u2019s top stories on Wednesday, December 31, 2025\u2026<\/b><\/p>\n When Vanessa Perez Rojas began her first year at Saint Mary\u2019s College in Moraga, she recalled feeling a bit lost and out of place. Growing up in\u00a0San Francisco<\/a> with parents who migrated from Mexico and El Salvador, she said she wasn\u2019t exposed to much information about college.\u00a0\u201cI had no idea how to even declare a major. I didn\u2019t really even know where to look,\u201d said the 21-year-old speaking from campus, where graduation celebrations often include mariachi bands and taco bars.<\/p>\n Perez Rojas knew of Saint Mary\u2019s because her older brother had attended \u2014 which gave her the confidence that she could find support as a first-generation college student. More than one-third of St. Mary\u2019s students are Latino, and the school is designated a Hispanic Serving Institution, a federal program that allows colleges to apply for grants if at least 25% of their students identify as Hispanic. \u201cI\u2019ve been able to meet great mentors who also fit that description of being first generation, and far beyond being able to see myself through them, they want to see people like myself succeed,\u201d Perez Rojas said.<\/p>\n There are 171 Hispanic-Serving Institutions in California \u2014 the most of any state \u2014 and they have long relied on federal funding to\u00a0pay for programs, staff, and support services. Now, those schools are worried about\u00a0<\/a>the program\u2019s future. Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Education pulled $350 million that had been allocated to HSIs. In a statement, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0the HSI program amounts to \u201cdiscrimination based upon race or ethnicity,\u201d as the Trump administration scales back initiatives related to diversity, equity and inclusion.<\/p>\n The program\u2019s existence was already under threat. In June, the state of Tennessee and Students for Fair Admissions,\u00a0a nonprofit legal advocacy organization founded by conservative activist Edward Blum for the purpose of challenging affirmative action admissions policies at schools, filed\u00a0a federal lawsuit<\/a> claiming HSI funding is unconstitutional. The Trump administration declined to contest the case.\u00a0The idea that the program is discriminatory is misleading, said Gina Ann Garcia, a professor in the UC Berkeley School of Education who studies HSIs and hosts a podcast about them.\u00a0\u201cA lot of campuses do benefit, including our community college system in California, and have had a good success rate of getting those HSI grants to advance programs that we know are serving students,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cIt would be detrimental to California if we no longer have access to those funds.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n