Students express skepticism at designation of UC Berkeley as a Black-Serving Institution | Campus

UC Berkeley announced Jan. 29 that it was named a Black-Serving Institution, or BSI, in December 2025. 

The recognition came as part of an inaugural group of California colleges and universities recognized under a new state initiative, according to Elisa Diana Huerta, Associate Vice Chancellor for Community Engagement and Transformative Care. 

The designation was established by California’s Senate Bill 1348 in 2024. The bill aims to recognize colleges and universities that “excel at providing academic resources to Black and African American students.” 

“For UC Berkeley, the designation affirms ongoing campuswide efforts to align institutional values, programs, and resources to better support students across undergraduate, graduate, and professional programs,” Huerta said in an email. 

UC Davis, three CSU campuses and 25 community colleges were among the 31 other institutions to receive the designation. 

Campus’s application to receive the BSI designation included engaging in frameworks such as the African American Thriving Initiatives, or AATI, according to Huerta in the email. 

The AATI, among other initiatives, outlines goals and strategies to address the climate for Black students on campus, following initial demands made by the Black Student Union in 2015. 

According to the AATI’s website, these demands included opening an African American Student Development Resource Center, renaming Barrows Hall and allocating money toward hiring Black admissions staff members to specialize in recruiting Black students. 

Barrows Hall — named after David Prescott Barrows, the UC system’s president from 1919-23 — was renamed The Social Sciences Building in November 2020 due to Barrows’ past writings, which promote white supremacy. 

“UC Berkeley was designated as a BSI due to its demonstrated, long-standing commitment to advancing Black student success through international initiatives, student-centered programming, and strategic efforts focused on access, retention, belonging, and degree completion,” Huerta added in the email. 

However, ASUC Senator Margaret Solomon, who is endorsed by the Black student community, said she was surprised to hear the campus received a BSI designation. Solomon said that while she is hopeful the designation will draw more attention to Black students, the campus needs to do more work to uplift the community.  

“Even though we are being delegated with this honor, there’s still a large majority of African American students who aren’t able to fully tap into the resources that both the resource center and larger African American Student Development community can provide,” saidMalik Mbugua, a senior and a student staff member at the Fannie Lou Hamer Black Resource Center. 

Mbugua also said the campus should provide more space for students to find community within the African American and African spaces.

Solomon said she hopes to see the campus do better in a number of areas, including increasing funding for Black resource centers, further support of Black transfer students and more scholarships for Black students as a whole.

“I just don’t think right now Berkeley has done much to prove that they’re committed to the success of Black students,” Solomon said. “But, I think with this designation, Berkeley could commit to doing more for Black students.”