Cal Poly ethnic studies experts oppose new CSU course requirements. Here’s why
Cal Poly’s Ethnic Studies Department interim chair and professors said they oppose the new requirements approved Wednesday by California State University’s Board of Trustees.
Trustees voted 13-5 to replace one of the three-unit social science course requirements with a class in Native American, African American, Asian American, or Latino and Latina studies. Courses that cover other historically oppressed groups, such as Jews, Muslims, the LGBTQ community, and women, would also be included, as well as courses that have a social justice component.
The policy is the first significant change in the CSU system’s general education requirements in 40 years.
The trustees’ policy was passed in opposition to Assembly Bill 1460, which would also require students to take an ethnic studies course but would limit its scope to Native American, African American, Asian American and Latino studies.
“Cal Poly will remain focused on the success and timely graduation of our students, while of course following all state and federal laws and CSU requirements,” said Cal Poly’s director of media relations, Matt Lazier, in an emailed statement about the new requirement. “We are working to infuse diversity, equity and inclusion into our pedagogy and curriculum, including in general education, and will continue to do so in accordance with the direction we receive from leaders in the CSU and state legislature.”
Cal Poly ethnic studies chair calls requirement ‘hollowed-out diversity’
Jenell Navarro, the interim chair of the Ethnic Studies Department at Cal Poly, said she and her department oppose the trustees’ policy because it is “hollowed-out diversity.”
“The chancellor’s initiative, it really ignores the majority of ethnic studies experts,” Navarro said. “What they have put together would actually allow students to acquire an ethnic studies requirement without ever taking an ethnic studies class.”
Navarro said her primary concern is that students would not truly get an ethnic studies education because social justice classes do not have to be taught by an ethnic studies expert. She likened it to the English Department, where classes are only taught by those with an expertise in English.
Navarro said she and her department instead support AB 1460, because it requires students to take courses that focus on the four major racial and ethnic groups in the United States.
José Navarro, an associate professor of ethnic studies at Cal Poly and husband of the department chair, said that AB 1460 was opposed by many trustees because of their objection to the Legislature intervening with CSU curriculum.
“On one hand, I understand that,” he said. “But if any of these faculty members were good ethnic studies students, they would realize that in many cases the government, the legislators and the legal system have had to historically intervene in education in order to do the right thing.”
Navarro cited Mendez v. Westminster, a 1947 California case that was the first in the United States to hold that school segregation is unconstitutional, as a time when the law had to intervene in public education.
AB 1460 may cost $16.5 million per year
Another concern with AB 1460 is funding. The CSU estimates the bill would cost $16.5 million each year to provide an ethnic studies course, along with a $1.5 million one-time cost to review associate degree transfer pathways resulting from the new graduation requirement.
But José Navarro said that opposition to AB 1460 as a result of the associated costs simply shows “implicit racism and resistance to a real ethnic studies requirement” and that it is what “white supremacy looks like ... it’s just cloaked in economic concern.”
To accommodate the AB 1460 requirement, Cal Poly would need to hire additional ethnic studies staff, Janell Navarro said. With a school system facing millions in coronavirus-related losses and budget cuts from the governor, she said the staffing needs would be difficult to fill at first but that they’re hoping to propose a cluster hire of ethnic studies experts.
Additionally, Navarro said Cal Poly has a similar program to the trustees’ policy: the United States Cultural Pluralism, or USCP, requirement. This mandates that students must take a course that covers diverse communities and addresses the school’s Diversity Learning Objectives.
But the USCP program underwent an “incredible revamping” because many of the classes offered that claimed to meet the requirement did not actually teach about diverse communities,” Navarro said.
“Our institution (Cal Poly) is the whitest and wealthiest out of all public universities in the state of California,” she said. “So we really need to change, and I don’t think what the chancellor has approved will do anything to create, you know, diversity with teeth and real institutional and structural change.”
This story was originally published July 24, 2020 at 12:16 PM.
