CSUN Social Work Department - Hispanic Serving Institution Commitment

HSI Institution Graphic

Over the past year, the Department of Social Work at California State University, Northridge has engaged in sustained reflection and dialogue about what it means to operate under the federal classification of a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI). This process has not been easy. As a department committed to anti-oppressive, antiracist, justice-centered education, we have struggled with how to authentically define who we are and how we move within a designation that, while federally mandated, does not fully reflect the lived realities or the cultural, linguistic, and political diversity of our students.

In this moment, amid renewed ICE raids, intensifying anti-immigrant rhetoric, and growing fears of deportation within our communities, we recognize the urgency of responding with care, clarity, and integrity. We acknowledge that terms like “Hispanic” and “Latine” are imperfect and often contested. While “Hispanic Serving Institution” remains a federal classification held by the university, many of our students do not feel fully represented by these terms. Some resist these labels altogether, finding them too narrow to capture the breadth and complexity of their identities, histories, and cultural affiliations.

In our MSW program, more than 60% of our students identify as Hispanic, Latine, Indigenous, or Afro-Latine. We honor this plurality by centering cultural humility, anti-racism, intersectionality, and trauma-informed practice throughout our curriculum and community partnerships. We strive to create educational spaces where students feel seen, respected, and empowered, and where their lived experiences are not just acknowledged but recognized as essential to our collective learning.

Our department is committed to sustaining critical conversations about colonization, migration, language, and racialization. We work to expose and dismantle the structural inequities, both historical and ongoing, that shape educational access and belonging. We maintain our stance of integrating multilingual and multicultural perspectives into our pedagogy and practicum placements, while also cultivating crucial mentorship and support systems. We aim to promote a sense of belonging for all, regardless of actual or perceived citizenship status.

This work is dynamic and unfinished. We do not claim to have all the answers, nor do we assume a static understanding of what it means to serve. Instead, we are committed to ongoing learning, accountability, and transformation, and to working alongside one another in co-creating a socially just and inclusive academic home for all our students and faculty.

Additional information (with links):

Social Work Department Faculty & Staff

August 2025