Moderated by Curry, President and CEO, Compton College, our conversation explored the historical and contemporary barriers shaping Black student access and success in higher education, the history of minority-serving institutions, and why California’s new BSI designation matters. Johnson also introduced the California BSI Data Dashboard, a new public resource designed to promote transparency and accountability for Black student success. The discussion that followed was thoughtful, energetic, and hopeful. One question, however, stayed with us long after the session ended: Does the rise of Black-Serving Institutions put Black and Latino communities in competition with one another?
We understand why this concern has surfaced. In September 2024, Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 1348, making California the first state to create a formal designation for colleges and universities committed to serving Black students. Thirty-one institutions received the inaugural designation, including two University of California campuses, three California State University campuses, one private institution, and twenty-five California Community Colleges. Many of those same campuses are also federally designated Hispanic-Serving Institutions, with 175 HSIs in California—a reminder that institutions can be accountable to more than one community at the same time.
And California has not stopped there. Just earlier this year, lawmakers introduced Senate Bill 1255 to establish a California Hispanic-Serving Institution designation and Assembly Bill 2374 to create a state designation for Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander-Serving Institutions. Together, these proposals point to a broader shift in California’s approach to higher education. Indeed, rather than recognizing institutions only for whom they enroll, the state through legislation is beginning to recognize how institutions serve the people of California and how those commitments can be supported and measured.
At the same time, institutions are confronting shrinking budgets, escalating attacks on race-conscious policies and programs, new federal policies and mandates, and many leadership transitions. In that context, it is understandable to fear that each new designation will force historically underserved communities to compete for an already limited share of resources. But scarcity should not determine the boundaries of our solidarity. The pursuit of equity for one community should not come at the expense of another.
We all reject the idea that designations must compete with one another. Black-Serving Institutions, Hispanic-Serving Institutions, and other enrollment-based designations respond to different histories and different forms of educational inequity. And recognizing those differences should not have to divide the work. It must be a shared effort to ensure that colleges and universities serve historically underserved students with greater intention, accountability, and care.
The competition narrative also overlooks the complexity of students’ identities. Black and Latino are not mutually exclusive categories. Many students identify as both Black and Latino, yet their experiences are often overlooked when our institutions treat these communities as separate constituencies with separate interests. Collaboration between BSIs and HSIs gives us an opportunity to better understand and support Afro-Latino students while strengthening conversations about race, ethnicity, and belonging across higher education.
