Farmingdale State College (FSC) today announced it has received two Federal designations from the U.S. Department of Education, for higher education institutions enrolling populations with significant percentages of undergraduate minority students. The designations will make available increased federal funding for programs to recruit and retain minority undergraduate students that will assist them from admission to graduation.
FSC been designated a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI), having achieved a full-time undergraduate enrollment of Hispanic students that is more than 25 percent of the student body. FSC has also been designated an Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institution (AANAPISI), with an enrollment of undergraduate students that is at least 10 percent Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander.
“This couples with our designation as a Higher Education Excellence and Diversity (HEED) campus, which we received in Summer 2022,” said Dr. John Nader, President of Farmingdale State College (FSC). “The diversity of our student body is a point of pride for all of us at FSC. It’s not just the color of people’s skin, but about who feels included in our institution and receives access to the opportunities that we offer. It makes us stronger and deepens our breadth of cultures and perspectives in our programs.”
The percentage of students at Farmingdale State College who identify as Hispanic or Latino has more than doubled over the past 10 years from 1,100 in 2012 to 2,542 in 2022. As the fastest growing population of any racial or ethnic group at FSC, students identifying as Hispanic or Latino now comprise 27 percent of the student population, up from 14 percent in 2012. Similarly, the Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islanders population at FSC has risen from 560 in 2012 to 1,119 in 2022 with the sharpest increase among Asian students, at 111 percent.
Farmingdale soon expects to submit a U.S. Department of Education application that would seek increased Federal funding for programs to increase recruitment and retention among Hispanic students, which Nader says is part of the changing demographics of not just the FSC student body, but of Long Island overall. The funding is expected to enhance the student experience and programs to support their success as well as participate in applied learning experiences.
“In my high school I was the only Hispanic student in my [Advanced Placement] classes and being a commuter student sometimes makes it hard to connect with people on campus,” said Catherine Arevalo, a junior from Huntington, NY studying Computer Science. “Having a sense of community of people from our shared backgrounds makes the environment one that I look forward to being in every day. You can see this especially with the incoming freshmen. They have a real sense of the diversity and inclusion of the campus.”
“It’s very important to have diversity on campus,” said Arianna Rivera, a sophomore Business Management major from North Babylon, NY. “We just restarted the Latin American Student Organization and have more than 100 members already and we all feel like family. It makes me so happy.”
“Over my time here I have come to understand other people’s cultural backgrounds, and not just reinforce my own,” said Oscar Donilla, a senior from Huntington Station, NY who is studying Electrical Engineering. “It’s a great thing to share someone else’s experience and feel welcomed by it.”
“Farmingdale is a true mix of backgrounds and ethnicities, representative of the changing demographics of our region,” said Dr. Nader.
