Bridging Cultures and Campuses: HSIs, HBCUs, and Shared Excellence

This Hispanic Heritage month, as we celebrate the nation’s institutions that were founded to serve our Hispanic communities, we can also celebrate the world’s only HBCU-HSI institution: St. Philip’s College of San Antonio, Texas. Founded in 1898, St. Philip’s began as a singular sewing class for six Black girls in San Antonio, then grew into St. Philip’s Normal and Industrial School and ultimately into a junior college serving the Black community. It’s history offers a compelling narrative as to how intentionally exclusionary efforts create distinctively innovative opportunities and impact.

St. Philip’s was created because Black students faced restricted access to educational opportunities in San Antonio, with a mission shaped by the realities of racial exclusion.

As St. Philip’s Junior College, the school was operated by the Episcopal diocese, but after a court case that mandated 2-year schools needed to fall under the management of the local Independent School Districts, St. Philip’s was transferred to San Antonio Independent School District in 1942 as the Black option to San Antonio College. With most stories where politics is injected to education, St. Philip’s was intended to stay a Black school, with a limited academic portfolio. It was intended to stay a technical institution offering only vocational programming. But as those vocational careers became the most in-demand careers, the enrollment of the school boomed for Black and Hispanic members of the San Antonio community.

 Fall 2024 St. Philip’s Community College touted the highest enrollment of the Historically Black Colleges in the country with an enrollment of 17,299 student, which is a 20% increase from Fall 2023’s reported enrollment. St. Philip’s has maintained an enrollment over 10,000 students since 2008, and even during the pandemic where many schools experienced significant dips in enrollment St. Philip’s only lost 200 students (1%).  Its success no doubt can be attributed to demonstrating that institutional identity can be both historically rooted and innovatively responsive to communities.

 As part of what is now the Alamo Community College District, St. Philip’s expanded its facilities, student population, academic programs, and workforce offerings. As San Antonio changed, the institution like most HBCUs met the community where they were. It did not forget its history. For St. Phiilp’s, serving a broader population did not mean abandoning the population the institution was created to serve. Today, St. Philip’s honors its history as an institution created for Black students while also serving a large Hispanic population and the broader San Antonio community.

 In so meeting the community needs, St. Phillips is one of the largest producers of Mechanic and Repair Technologies/Technicians (CIP code 47) in the nation, specifically in the area of Vehicle Maintenance and Repair Technologies/Technicians (47.06). In 2024 a total of 24,892 certificates were awarded in Vehicle Maintenance and Repair Technologies/Technicians and 464 of them came from St. Philip’s alone, ranking it third in the country for certificate training in this field. Like many other HBCUs it leads in the production of a technical workforce that drives the technical innovation of our country. 

 Our nation’s HBCUs and HSIs share more than we often acknowledge. While HBCUs and HSIs emerged from different historical circumstances, many of the challenges they still face today are similar. Both educate substantial numbers of first-generation students. Both serve populations that have historically experienced barriers to higher education. Both play significant roles in workforce development and economic mobility for their students. Both are being asked to prepare students for rapidly changing industries while simultaneously strengthening infrastructure, technology, student support, and institutional sustainability. And many HBCUs and HSIs attempt to accomplish these goals with fewer resources than the nation’s wealthiest of universities. Despite these similarities, collaboration between HBCUs and HSIs is still too often treated as a special initiative rather than an obvious innovative strategy.

 That should change.

 The concept of shared excelence should extend beyond cultural recognition. Regional collaborations between HBCUs and HSIs could create access to laboratories, specialized faculty expertise, industry relationships, research development professionals, technology platforms, internship pathways, and academic programs that build off of one another’s excellence and rigor.

 A student at one institution might access a specialized course at another. Faculty could collaborate around shared research facilities. Institutions could jointly approach employers seeking a larger and more diverse talent pools. Research administrators could collaborate on major federal proposals. Technology-transfer and entrepreneurship services synergize for broader regional impact. That is what shared excellence could look like when it becomes intentional rather than symbolic.

 Ultimately, growth does not require historical amnesia. St. Philip’s story and its continued impact to the nation illustrates how institutional mission can be expanded in its reach. The histories of HBCUs and HSIs may be different, but many of our challenges as well as many of our opportunities are shared.

This story originally ran in The EDU Ledger's October 1, 2026 edition. Subscribe here for full access.