Representatives of Calif Legislative Ethnic Caucuses Implore San Francisco State University to Preserve Its Pioneering Ethnic Studies Program

March 16, 2016

SACRAMENTO — Representatives from the California Latino Legislative Caucus, Asian & Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus and the Legislative Black Caucus have written a letter to San Francisco State University President Leslie Wong urging her to not cut funding for the school’s highly regarded and ground-breaking College of Ethnic Studies.

“We are deeply disturbed to learn of your recent budget proposal to eliminate $500,000 in funding from the College of Ethnic Studies,” the letter says. “These cuts will be devastating to vital lectures, programs, courses and student services at San Francisco State University. SFSU, the birthplace of Ethnic Studies, has recently admitted a record high number of students who identify themselves as being part of an ethnic group.”

The College of Ethnic Studies at SFSU was founded in 1968 as a response to the lack of access, misrepresentation, and the overall neglect of indigenous peoples and people of color within the university’s curriculum and programs. SFSU created the first Ethnic Studies program and degree major in California.

“These proposed budget cuts would force the College to eliminate the very foundation it was built on,” the letter says. “The College will no longer have the ability to provide safe academic spaces for all to learn about the histories, cultures and intellectual traditions of Native peoples and communities of color in the United States.”

Assemblymember Luis Alejo (D-Salinas), Chair of the Latino Caucus, recently introduced a bill in the Assembly – AB 2016 – that aims to establish Ethnic Studies courses at public high schools in California and to create the first statewide standardized curriculum in ethnic studies.

“An example of the potential of AB 2016 in our public schools is San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD), which successfully developed comprehensive Ethnic Studies courses for its high school students, thanks to the guidance and knowledge of the professors at San Francisco State,” the letter says. “SFUSD’s success was recently highlighted in a Stanford University study demonstrating an overall academic improvement of students who took the courses while on the verge of dropping out of high school.”

The letter is signed by Assemblymember Alejo, Chair of the Latino Caucus; Assemblymember Isadore Hall, III (D –South Bay), Chair of the Black Caucus; and Assemblymember David Chiu (D-San Francisco), Policy Chair of the Asian & Pacific Islander Caucus.

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CONTACT: Andrew Bird / Andrew.Bird@asm.ca.gov / (916) 319-2030