National Hispanic-Serving Institutions Week, 2024

Proclamation 10804 of September 6, 2024

National Hispanic-Serving Institutions Week, 2024

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

Education is a ticket to a better life, and for more
than 4.7 million Hispanic and Latino students,
Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) make it possible.
The over 500 HSIs across our country are home to over
half of Hispanic and Latino college students. During
National Hispanic-Serving Institutions Week, we
celebrate these critical postsecondary institutions,
which empower our students to pursue the full limits of
their talent and ambition.

HSIs are engines of opportunity, success, and upward
mobility. They serve Dreamers, first-generation college
students, and many who come from low-income and
underserved communities. HSIs empower their students,
no matter the students' backgrounds, to obtain their
degrees and begin building a more secure, prosperous
future for themselves and their families.

My Administration is committed to giving HSIs the
resources they need to support the students they serve.
That is why we invested over $15 billion in HSIs,
including $11 billion through the American Rescue
Plan--the largest investment in Hispanic and Latino
college students in our Nation's history. I also
established the first-ever White House Initiative on
Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic
Opportunity through Hispanic-Serving Institutions,
which will support HSIs in building their capacity to
provide a high-quality education, identify
opportunities for these institutions to participate in
Federal programs, and help to ensure HSIs can continue
to be engines of educational opportunity and economic
mobility.

We are also working to make college more affordable for
every American and to relieve the crushing burden of
student loan debt. We have approved the cancellation of
nearly $170 billion in student loan debt for nearly 5
million people through various actions. We repaired the
Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program (PSLF), giving
more breathing room to teachers, nurses, law
enforcement officials, first responders, and other
public servants. My Administration has already provided
relief to 946,000 borrowers through PSLF--before I took
office, only 7,000 public servants had received debt
relief through this program. We secured a $900 increase
to the maximum Pell Grant award--the largest increase
in over a decade--lowering the cost of higher education
for underserved students. We are also taking steps to
help borrowers manage their payments through income-
driven repayment and get access to benefits through
fixes to public service loan forgiveness, borrower
defense, and other key types of discharges. And earlier
this year, I laid out my Administration's new plans
that would provide debt relief for more than 30 million
Americans when combined with everything we have done so
far.

The promise of America is big enough for everyone to
succeed--we just have to make sure we keep the doors of
opportunity open. This week, may we celebrate the more
than 500 HSIs, which support our Latino students, put
new possibilities within their reach, and give them a
fair shot at the American Dream.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of
the United States of America, by virtue of the
authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws
of the United States, do hereby proclaim September 9
through

September 15, 2024, as National Hispanic-Serving
Institutions Week. I call on public officials,
educators, and all the people of the United States to
observe this week with appropriate programs,
ceremonies, and activities that acknowledge the many
ways these institutions and their graduates contribute
to our country.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
sixth day of September, in the year of our Lord two
thousand twenty-four, and of the Independence of the
United States of America the two hundred and forty-
ninth.