Southern University was one of two historically Black colleges and universities recently designated as a Carnegie R2 research institution, the second-highest classification for American research universities.
The honor comes as part of the Carnegie Classification of Institutes of Higher Education, which assessed over 3,000 post-secondary institutions in 2021.
The updated assessment, which included 100 HBCUs, maintained that eight HBCUs were worthy of maintaining their R2 designations while two, including Southern, achieved the status for the first time.