Cal Poly faculty member accused police of racial profiling. Now the state will investigate
An allegation that a Cal Poly faculty member was a victim of racial profiling by police on the San Luis Obispo campus has been forwarded to the California Attorney General’s Office for review, university officials confirmed.
According to a union representative, the faculty member of color involved in the traffic stop continues to feel unsafe on campus and is concerned about possible retaliation months after the incident during fall quarter.
Union representatives first reported that the individual was handcuffed during a traffic stop and searched for weapons.
“No reason was given for the traffic stop, and no citation was issued,” Lewis Call, a history professor and president of the California Faculty Association SLO told The Tribune in an email. “We do not believe that the university police had probable cause to take those actions.”
No additional details about the stop have been made public.
Cal Poly spokesperson Matt Lazier confirmed with The Tribune that “given the serious nature of the allegation,” the matter was forwarded to the Attorney General’s Office for examination, as first reported by Mustang News.
“Separately, the university forwarded the matter to its Office of Equal Opportunity. However, again, the CFA has not provided sufficient information or clarifying detail to allow for OEO to investigate at this time,” Lazier said in an email.
Call said Cal Poly’s Office of Equal Opportunity retained an outside investigator from the state Attorney General’s Office to help with the investigation.
‘So few faculty of color at Cal Poly’
The race of the individual involved has not been released because, Call said, “There are so few faculty of color at Cal Poly that if I were to identify the person’s race or ethnicity, people might be able to figure out their identity.”
Of faculty who shared their race or ethnicity with the university, about 76% identify as white, 6% multiracial, 6% Asian, 4% Latinx, 2% Middle Eastern or North African and less than 2% African American or black.
Call said the union does not have specific evidence of other racial profiling incidents by the University Police Department.
“We do believe that this incident provides further evidence that people of color often feel unwelcome or unsafe at Cal Poly,” Call said.
That was documented in the Cal Poly Experience CPX survey. Minority faculty reported less of a sense of being valued and belonging at Cal Poly compared to white faculty, and were less likely to report that they are thriving and growing.
The university is undergoing a large effort to improve diversity on campus — which the union recognizes, Call said.
“CFA and management share certain broad goals regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion, but we sometimes disagree about how to achieve those goals,” he said. “Everyone agrees that it’s important to increase the diversity of our faculty. And the university has taken some positive steps toward achieving that goal.”
For example, search committees looking to fill positions are now trained to understand how unconscious bias might disadvantage candidates of color, and “that’s been very helpful,” he said.
