CSUN President Erika D. Beck joined CSU and community college leaders along with state lawmakers at Cal State Dominguez Hills on Friday, Feb. 7, to celebrate California’s new Black-Serving Institutions (BSI) designation. The new program was created by legislation, Senate Bill 1348, which was signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom and went into effect this year. The designation will be given to state college campuses that demonstrate commitment to Black student success and provide academic resources to Black and African American students. Beck said CSUN is looking forward to becoming a Black-Serving Institution and work is underway on the application.
“We are a proud Minority-Serving Institution that celebrates the cultural wealth and aspirational capital of every student seeking a CSUN education.” Beck said. “Achieving the BSI designation will highlight our ongoing work to eliminate structural barriers to higher education and complements our equity-centered work across the campus.”
To qualify as a Black-Serving Institution, a college or university must demonstrate academic and equity goals, and resources to improve retention, time-to-degree and graduation rates for Black and African American students. Qualifying institutions must have at least 10 percent of the student population that identifies as Black or African American — or has at least 1,500 Black and African American students enrolled. The measure also establishes a governing board to oversee the applications and renewals for the program.
CSUN’s Black and African American student population is nearly 2,000 students. Existing campus initiatives aimed at fostering and supporting Black and African American scholarship include Black Matadors Rise, Black Scholars Matter, the Black House, and the landmark Africana Studies program, one of the oldest and largest departments of its kind in the nation, within the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences.
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