By Kenna Jenkins, February 3, 2026
Multiple universities in California, including three California State Universities, have been recognized as Black-Serving Institutions under a new state-wide designation.
The universities that acquired this designation were CSU Northridge, Dominguez Hills and Sacramento, University of California Berkley and Davis and Loyola Marymount University. Twenty-five community colleges also earned the designation, including Compton College, East Lost Angeles College, Long Beach City College, Los Angeles Harbor College, Pasadena City College, Riverside City College, San Bernardino Valley College, Santa Monica College and West Los Angeles College to name a few.
“In California, there was an absence, a symbol of designation that would highlight an institution’s commitment to Black student success,” said Robert “BJ” Snowden, the interim executive director of the CSU Statewide Central Office for the Advancement of Black Student Success.
Senate Bill 1348 established the designation and was passed September 2024 in order to acknowledge the historical barriers Black and African American students have faced while seeking higher education across the country, as well as the lack of Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the western region of the United States.
For a university to gain the designation, Senate Bill 1348 states it must have at least 10% of enrolled students identifying as Black and African American or have at enrolled at least 1,500 Black and African American students.
As of fall 2025 CPP has 648 Black and African American students enrolled, making up 2% of the student population.
“In the application, they set goals for themselves and metrics for themselves to achieve over the five-years designation,” Snowden said.
Snowden said if the university wants to reapply after the five-year period is over, the reapplication looks a little different, as it is more of a report of what the campus has achieved since the designation was awarded.
As for the goals required of universities at the time of their application, Bobbi Porter, the vice president and campus diversity, equity and inclusion officer at CSU Dominguez Hills, said she likes more focus on answering important questions that change the structure of the institution.
“How are we sitting with desegregated data, understanding the student life cycle?” Porter said. “Where are Black students thriving? Where may they be falling out? Where can we rethink a structure or our approach to work on campus in a way that’s best serving our students?”
Porter said Dominguez Hills is looking at practices in enrollment, outreach and recruitment and classroom experiences throughout the campus.
While Dominguez Hills received its Hispanic-Serving Institution from a change in demographics in the area, its BSI designation required cross divisional meetings to see and understand what worked well and what didn’t, according to Porter.
“We think a lot about how we can bring our lived experiences through the prism of our identities to the campus every day, and that extends to our students,” Porter said. “So, we have a fairly rich student life for all of our students but even especially for our Black students.”
Porter said the HSI designation gave them a strong foundation for understanding the need to look closely at student identities, whereas the BSI designation was a more specificcommitment due to the Senate Bill’s requirements.
Freddie Sanchez, CSU Northridge’s associate vice president of equity and inclusion, also recognized how being a Hispanic-Serving Institution has helped build programs that have had both a positive and equitable impact on students.
Sanchez said Northridge added a Black Resource Center/Black House to foster community among students shortly after the addition of the campus’ Department of Africana Studies in 1968.
“We have developed a number of programs designed to meet the needs of current and future students, including introducing middle and high schoolers to higher education, CSUN in particular, creating pathways for them to connect as they matriculate to the campus,” Sanchez said.
Snowden said the CSU system is already talking about building a network between the existing Black-serving institutions to support schools that don’t meet the required number of Black students for the designation but are still interested in strengthening their support for Black students. Snowden said this support would come in the form of shared research, publications and best practices.
“There are many colleges across the state, all of higher ed, community colleges, University of Californias, CSUs, private, that are really doing a phenomenal job of serving students in general,” Snowden said. “This is a way to acknowledge those who have the data and the commitment to show that their Black students are also thriving at the institution.”
Feature image courtesy of California State University Office of the Chancellor