UIC AANAPISI Initiative
Senate Resolution (SR 26.01) affirming UIC's status as a Minority Serving Institution (MSI) - both as AANAPISI and HSI - passed unanimously at the faculty senate meeting on Oct. 29, 2025.
Message from the UIC AANAPISI Initiative
On Sept. 10th when the U.S. Department of Education announced their termination of Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs), UIC lost its fifth and final year of funding for our Title III Part A Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISI) grant, the fourth AANAPISI grant UIC has held. UIC became an MSI when we became the first funded AANAPISI in the Midwest in 2010 and we became a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) in 2016.
Asian American and Pacific Islander students have made up around 21% of UIC undergraduates for at least three decades. And just this fall the incoming Asian American student enrollment rose by 4.7%, a fitting increase reflecting the fifteen years that the UIC AANAPISI Initiative has supported the recruitment, retention, and graduation of Asian American and Pacific Islander students at UIC.
Receiving close to $7.1 million of federal funding as a Minority Serving Institution since 2010, the UIC AANAPISI Initiative has strengthened student success through the Asian American Resource and Cultural Center (AARCC), Global Asian Studies Program (GLAS), and many other campus partners, including the Writing Center, First Year Writing Program, Career Services, and more. Most recently, the AANAPISI grant helped to establish the new Asian American Student Academic Program (AASAP) which had over 60 programs planned for this coming year before the grant was discontinued.
The Year 5 (2025 – 26) funding in the amount of $293,773.00 would have covered:
- AASAP programming centering on student success initiatives to promote academic support, educational skill-building, financial education,and career readiness – (bridge funding has since been provided)
- Pacific Islander student outreach programs through the Asian American Resource and Cultural Center and Native American Support Program (NASP)
- Global Asian Studies pipeline programming for prospective high school students;
- Global Asian Studies community engaged curriculum initiatives
- Five graduate assistants, and a percentage of staff and faculty time to implement the above programs
- Campus support of these vital programs aligns with UIC’s current priorities of supporting student success and community engagement. It would continue to keep UIC at the forefront of educating Asian American and Pacific Islander students in the Midwest and nationally.
We affirm the significance of all the Minority Serving Institutions which serve the vital needs of students in Illinois and nationally. We are appalled at the Department of Education boasting about shifting the funds from the discontinued MSIs to Historically Black College and Universities (HBCUs) and Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs). We refuse to be pitted against other Minority Serving Institutions which are all equally deserving of federal funding to support the success of all students.
Download this flier to learn more about the AANAPISI initiative at UIC from 2010-2026.
UIC AANAPISI Initiative
UIC became the first Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institution (AANAPISI) in the Midwest, and since 2010, the UIC AANAPISI Initiative has received four grants, totalling $7.1 million, from the U.S. Department of Education to enhance the capacity of UIC to serve Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) students. The UIC AANAPISI Initiative has helped to establish or strengthen the Asian American Resource and Cultural Center, Global Asian Studies, and the new Asian American Student Academic Program and many other supports for on campus for all UIC students.
The UIC AANAPISI Initiative supports the recruitment, retention, and graduation of Asian American and Pacific Islander students at the University of Illinois at Chicago. It is fully funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institutions (AANAPISI) Program, which started after the federal designation was created through legislation in 2007.
The U.S. Department of Education’s term “Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander” refers to Asian American students (with origins from East Asia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia including the Philippines) and Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander students (with origins from Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, Northern Mariana Islands, and other Pacific Islands.) The federal funding has supported many first-generation, immigrant, low-income students.
Notable facts about the AANAPISI program nationally:
- AANAPISIs are the newest federal designation of the Minority Serving Institutions (MSI) program and in 2021 received only 1% of all the appropriations for MSIs.
- Despite the small amount of appropriations, three quarters of low-income AAPI students attend an AANAPISI.
- AANAPISIs enroll 40% of AAPI college students even though AANAPISIs only make up 5% of colleges and universities in the U.S.
- While the focus is to serve Asian American and Pacific Islander students, AANAPISI federal programs have benefited all students at each AANAPISI institution regardless of background.
The faculty and staff of UIC’s Asian American Resource and Cultural Center and Asian American Studies, and now Global Asian Studies applied for these competitive federal grants and were successfully awarded four AANAPISI grants to enhance the capacity of UIC to serve AA and PI students.
Notable facts about the UIC AANAPISI Initiative:
- In 2010, UIC became the first funded AANAPISI in the Midwest with the first grant.
- Becoming an AANAPISI in 2010 designated UIC as a Minority Serving Institution before it also became a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) in 2016.
- The UIC AANAPISI Initiative is made up of four grants totalling $7.1 million:
- 2010-2015: Part A Grant, $2 million
- 2011-2017: Part F Grant, $2.1 million
- 2015-2021: Part A Grant, $1.5 million
- 2021-2026: Part A Grant, $1.5 million
UIC plays a major role in educating Asian American and Pacific Islander students in the Midwest and nationally. Illinois and the Chicago metropolitan area have the highest population of Asian Americans in the Midwest while Illinois, Ohio, and Missouri have the highest population of Pacific Islanders in the Midwest. Also, almost 90% of Asian Americans in Illinois live here, which contributes to the 20% of UIC students who are Asian American.
To learn more about the programs and research carried out by the first three grants at UIC, please see Initiative Reports and Research.
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