201811.13

CSU professors, faculty fear new general education orders will phase out need for cultural studies; administration says it won’t

by jeff in News

Some 60 professors and students from a handful of California State University campuses protested a board of trustees meeting in Long Beach on Tuesday, Nov. 13, opposing two executive orders that they say will phase out the requirements for cultural studies courses. But CSU officials say the orders will do no such thing.

Executive order 1100-revised clarifies the general education requirements for the CSU’s 23 campuses, in an effort to make it easier for students to transfer, and 1110 addresses how freshmen are placed for courses based on assessments. Both of the executive orders were signed in August 2017 and were scheduled to be phased in system-wide the fall of 2018.

Martha Escobar, a professor of Chicano and Chicana studies delivers a message about the role cultural studies played in her life. Around 50 faculty members and students came out to protest the CSU Executive Orders 1100-revised and 1110. (Hunter Lee, Press-Telegram/SCNG)
Students and faculty from CSUN and other CSU campuses hold signs outside the CSU Chancellors office in Long Beach. Around 50 faculty members and students came out to protest the CSU Executive Orders 1100-revised and 1110. (Hunter Lee, Press-Telegram/SCNG)
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Students and faculty from CSUN and other CSU campuses hold signs outside the CSU Chancellors office in Long Beach. Around 50 faculty members and students came out to protest the CSU Executive Orders 1100-revised and 1110. (Hunter Lee, Press-Telegram/SCNG)
Students and faculty from CSUN and other CSU campuses hold signs outside the CSU Chancellors office in Long Beach. Around 50 faculty members and students came out to protest the CSU Executive Orders 1100-revised and 1110. (Hunter Lee, Press-Telegram/SCNG)
Stevie Ruiz, CSUN professor of Chicano and Chicana studies, leads students and faculty in a protest outside the CSU Chancellor’s Office in Long Beach on Tuesday. (Hunter Lee, Press-Telgram/SCNG)

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Protesters, largely from cultural studies departments, said they fear the orders will phase out the demand for lower-level courses such as Africana, Chicano, gender and women’s studies. Professors and students from Northridge, Long Beach, Fullerton, Chico and East Bay campuses expressed concerns of education equity, behavioral patterns of enrollment and white supremacy.

“Twice, our faculty has voted against both (executive orders),” said Stevie Ruiz, CSU Northridge professor of Chicano/a studies. “I did all the number crunching proving this will destroy our departments by the year 2021.”

But CSU spokesman Michael Uhlenkamp said executive order 1100-revised does not lower the demand for such courses and clarifies general education requirements.

“The courses offered at the campus are determined by student demand,” he said.

“As the most diverse university in the country, all 23 CSU campuses have diversity requirements in the curricula of all degree programs,” he said. “We are committed to providing students with exposure to diversity of cultures and ideas both in the classroom and throughout their university experience.”

CSUN Chair and Professor of the Department of Gender and Women’s Studies Breny Mendoza said she fears the executive order will prevent students from accessing courses on culture and oral history through gender and ethnic studies.

“With the elimination of these lower level courses, we’re going to see them begin to disappear from public universities and instead only be available at private universities like Harvard,” she said.