The major thesis of this article is that the mission of the nation's historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), that of producing socializing agents and providing solutions to problems unique to the African American community, is still needed today. This is so because of the persistent pattern of social disorganization that characterizes the collective experience of African Americans in the United States. However, the capacity of HBCUs to carry out these functions is complicated by the fact that, during the past 20 years, these institutions have undergone major transformations in their operational and organizational structures. In the shift from segregation to desegregation, HBCUs have faced the extremely complex task of restructuring their internal structures to adapt to their emerging configurations. At the same time, they have been groping for solutions to such profoundly disturbing social problems as the failure of urban and rural school systems, the shortage of African American teachers, the breakdown in the African American family, and the decreasing influence of the church in the African American community. However, these problems are so severe that acting independently, as a group of isolated colleges and universities, on a business-as-usual basis, it is unlikely that HBCUs will have any significant influence in solving them. This condition lends support to the argument for the formation of subgroups, or consortia, of HBCUs, whose specific charge would be to study and solve particular problems such as the shortage of African American teachers. Consortia in higher education are associations of colleges and universities organized to pursue common goals and objectives by establishing mutual obligations, sharing resources, and conducting substantive collaborations within and among member institutions. They can bring attention to emergent social needs by seeking solutions to the problems and issues emanating from unmet social demands. The set of conditions required to assure structural solidarity and effectiveness in goal achievement within consortia is commonality along such lines of experience as