Hispanic-Serving Institution designation loses funding

Author

Carly Heltzel
September 23, 2025

Good morning. It’s Tuesday, and I’m reading about the anticipation for Jimmy Kimmel’s first monologue back from being fired, airing tonight. Onto the five Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo and California stories you need to know for today.

1.

The U.S. Department of Education will no longer back up race- or ethnicity-based designations for universities with funding. That comes after years of Cal Poly working toward becoming a Hispanic-Serving Institution, a label that requires the university to enroll 25% Hispanic students for multiple years and maintain a certain amount of Pell Grant recipients. Cal Poly hit the 25% threshold for the first time last year, only to the funding to be yanked. But the university still says they’ll continue to serve every student.

2.

Applications for Meal Vouchers at Cal Poly are open until this Friday at 5 p.m. Students with demonstrated financial need, shown through the preexisting financial aid packages, can fill out a form to be considered. The application doesn’t require students provide any additional financial information, just that they give permission for Cal Poly Basic Needs, the program that administers the meal vouchers, to view their financial information through the university. Students with dining plans are not eligible. 

3.

A man who shredded a pride flag in Pismo Beach on the Fourth of July won’t be charged with a hate crime. While it was a part of the initial investigation, police quickly dropped the extra charge after interviewing The resident whose flag it was said she is an ally of the LGBTQ+ community, though not a part of it, and hoped the hate crime designation would mean the man would have to go through bias training. “It’s not like he came in and stomped on my flowers or smashed a garden gnome, right?” she said.

4.

Highway 1 in Big Sur could fully reopen in March after years of repairs from when a landslide took out the road. It closed in January 2023. This deadline for reopening is, like with many Caltrans projects, tentative at best. There’s still a winter season ahead that could derail the forward progress.

5.

A two-time former Arroyo Grande mayoral candidate will represent herself to defend against election fraud charges. She’s pleading not guilty with voter registration fraud, filing a false declaration of candidacy, fraudulent voting, failure to file campaign finance reports and perjury by declaration. Eight of her crimes are felonies and one is a misdemeanor, all. So yeah, I’d trust her to be my lawyer, too.