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Faculty across California State University are calling for a series of reforms meant to advance racial justice across the 23-campus system, from requiring students to take a class in ethnic studies to disarming campus police.
The California Faculty Association, the union representing faculty across the Cal State system, on Wednesday released a report titled “Anti-Racism and Social Justice Transformation Package,” which also calls on CSU to create Black studies departments at every campus, offer free tuition to Black and Indigenous students, increase the number of Black administrators and close racial pay gaps across the system.
Spurred by the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, the association spent the past several weeks developing the report, which is also being released amid a dispute between the union and the CSU chancellor’s office over whether to require students to take an ethnic studies course to graduate.
“Some of the internal work we have been working on for some time, but now we want to move from just us doing the work to the CSU chancellor’s office and the campuses actually implementing this,” said Charles Toombs, president of the faculty association.
In a statement to EdSource, Cal State spokesman Michael Uhlenkamp said the four-year university system is “committed to working to address racial inequities” but added that “the tactics to accomplish this differ from what the union is presenting.”
He said campus police departments are committed to community policing and pointed to the university’s support of Assembly Constitutional Amendment 5, an upcoming ballot measure that would repeal Proposition 209, which bans consideration of race or ethnicity in admissions decisions at the University of California, the California State University and other public entities.
The faculty union also supports ACA 5.
In the report released Wednesday, the faculty association also reiterated its support for AB 1460, a bill that would require students — beginning with those graduating in 2024-25 — to take a three-unit class in one of four ethnic studies disciplines: Native American studies, African American studies, Asian American studies, or Latina and Latino studies.
Chancellor Tim White, however, is opposed to the legislation and has brought a proposal to the system’s Board of Trustees that would require students to take a class from a much broader range of disciplines, as long as the class has a social justice component.
“People will say, why fight so hard for one class?” said Theresa Montaño, a professor of Chicana and Chicano studies at Cal State Northridge and member of the union. “It represents the long struggle against institutional racism in society. It ties the institution of higher education to the community and the struggles within our community. It is an evolving dynamic discipline with direct connection to community struggles.”
The report also calls for Black or Africana studies departments to be established at all CSU campuses.
So far, some CSU campuses, including San Diego State and Cal State Long Beach, already have such departments.
“We are a CSU for the 21st century and every campus in the system should have a Black studies department,” said Toombs, who is a professor in that department at San Diego State. “Universities that do not have it are not really keeping up with where we should be in the 21st century.”
The faculty association is also calling for CSU to reform the presence of police on campuses. Each of the 23 campuses has its own independent police department, and officers in those departments typically have access to firearms and other weapons
In their report, the CSU faculty wrote that CSU should “remove armed police from our campuses, and join CFA in exploring community based strategies as alternatives to policing that are based in community accountability and transformative justice.”
That particular demand comes as protesters across the country have demanded police reform following the police killing of Floyd. That movement has been felt in education, as activists in K-12 districts across California and in other states have successfully called on school boards to diminish the presence of police officers at schools. So far, the state’s public university systems have not faced major pressure to take similar steps.
Sharon Elise, the union’s associate vice president of racial and social justice and a sociology professor at CSU San Marcos, said that being around armed police “gives students a feeling like they’re in prison.”
“They all have access to weapons and this is really terrifying to students of color,” Elise said.
The union is also demanding that CSU hire more mental health counselors, close racial pay gaps across the system and increase diversity among administrators. The faculty also want campuses to prioritize increasing enrollments of Black students and are calling on CSU to offer free tuition to those students.
“We want this to be a moment where we just don’t talk about the issues,” Toombs said. “You know, when we have these moments of police brutality, everyone talks about them, but we really want to emphasize that the work has to be done to change the system.”
The system has enrolled more in-state residents, but not enough to meet targets set by the state.
Two prominent organizations say the proposal would dismantle progress made to improve reading instruction for those students.
Fresno City College professor Tom Boroujeni is unable to fulfill his duties as academic senate president while on leave, the latest update reads.
This is a continuing EdSource series on proven innovations in higher education that relate to the problems facing California’s higher education systems.
Comments (9)
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Beego Faster 4 years ago4 years ago
Much like every Democrat freebie, they are specific on the racial identity of who benefits but vague on who pays. Since you want all Blacks and Indigenous people to attend for free, what about Hispanics, and the 'other than white' students? Will they get to go for free, or is it just Black and Indigenous people? Will you then require the White and Asian students to pay a far greater tuition to cover 'free college'? … Read More
Much like every Democrat freebie, they are specific on the racial identity of who benefits but vague on who pays. Since you want all Blacks and Indigenous people to attend for free, what about Hispanics, and the ‘other than white’ students? Will they get to go for free, or is it just Black and Indigenous people? Will you then require the White and Asian students to pay a far greater tuition to cover ‘free college’?
I think this will need to go to a vote of the people since you will be directing money from all taxpayers in the state to a specific race of students, which I don’t think is going to stand up in court, because… well, it’s racist!
Anita 4 years ago4 years ago
The Ethnic Studies classes should have been a requirement for a degree many years ago. This is a long overdue proposal.
John 4 years ago4 years ago
Sounds like introduction of reverse racism to me!
Gail Contreras 4 years ago4 years ago
The UC system is run by Democrats so does that mean they are the systemic problem?
Jonathan Karpf 4 years ago4 years ago
As a 65 year old white, male who taught in the CSU for 32 years, I wholly support the CFA’s proposals to ameliorate the structural racism within the CSU and to accomplish this with concrete actions as opposed to more words. The time has come to finally address the social and racial inequities within the largest system of public higher education in the country.
Jimmy Lewis 4 years ago4 years ago
We fully support these reforms which CA State University faculty are calling for to advance racial justice at these 23 campuses. We also support ACA5 to repeal Proposition 209.
MICHAEL BOCHICCHIO 4 years ago4 years ago
Professor Elise does not say that the police are carrying guns, only that they have access to guns. I have not experienced any student express to me that they are fearful of having police on campus, in fact just the opposite.
Enrollment standards are just that. Social justice should mean that all are held to the same standards and accountability. You can’t have it both ways, equality and a lessoning of standards for one group.
Stacey Petersen 4 years ago4 years ago
Having these classes as options for students would be a great addition but to require them is something different. When you are paying for your classes you shouldn’t be forced to take a class if it doesn’t align with your degree needs. If these classes are required then they need to be free.
M McLaughlin 4 years ago4 years ago
The protesters think all White folks’ lineage had slaves which isn’t even close to being true. I would recommend Caucasian Studies mandatory.