Ethnic studies programs at Cal State Long Beach are in jeopardy of undergoing structural changes if voters do not approve Gov. Jerry Brown’s tax initiative this November.
In President F. King Alexander’s letter to the campus community in February, he said that CSULB could potentially face a $26 million deficit in the 2012-13 academic year.
“Instruction is being largely protected for fall [2012] but if the initiative does not get passed there will be massive class cuts in spring, perhaps 1,800 sections,” said David Dowell, vice provost for planning and budget, and director of strategic planning.
A consolidation of the Africana studies, the American Indian studies, the Asian and Asian American studies and the Chicano studies into one ethnic studies department has been mentioned, according to Dowell.
Dowell said there currently is no good solution, but changes have to be made. The possibility of restructuring certain departments on campus and consolidating them into one school is a possibility.
“While [an ethnic studies department] periodically gets suggested by various folks, I’m aware of no plan for this at the level of the provost’s office,” Dowell said via email.
Troy Johnson, the director of American Indian Studies, said consolidation is being discussed. Maulana Karenga, department chair of the Africana studies department, also said he’s “aware that conversations are occurring.”
Teri Yamada, professor and vice chair of the Asian and Asian American studies department, said she opposes the idea, but ultimately the administration would make the decision.
Johnson said that right now the four departments are in cooperation with each other but consolidating into one department would end the autonomy of each department and potentially create a competition between all four divisions over budget allocations.
Karenga said there should be a shared sacrifice between all departments on campus and not an inequitable shift towards the minority departments that have lower enrollment.
“It’s retrogressive to collapse all the colored people together,” Karenga said.
He said the identity of each department is at stake.
Karenga, Johnson and Yamada all mentioned a shift that has occurred in education and how it relates to the lower enrollment in their departments.
Yamada said education is becoming a commodity, something that sells and revolves around money instead of intellect.
Karenga said students should still remember the importance of getting a liberal education versus a career education.
Karenga said students should seek “an expansive conception of the human life.”
Johnson said there’s an increased focus in obtaining a career that hinders the opportunity college provides to explore different fields.
“Getting kids through college is becoming a business,” Johnson said.
The reason why these depts are so small is because you can’t get employed afterwards with them….
BUT beyond that, these depts that are mentioned really do nothing to promote diversity at all! Most of these majors have 36-38 units in order to graduate (a really small amount). Instead of promoting diversity they actually promote ethnic singularity. If you look at the demographics of the students entering these programs, over 95% are from that particular major’s demographic study. Since this is a known fact among these departments, how about the people within these communities learn about other ethnic groups instead of their own? If you are a Chicano studies major you should need to take classes in Asian American Studies or African studies or visa versa, along with a healthy dose of European history. I have met far too many people in these majors who are either 1) sandbagging in order to graduate or 2) have hidden seeds of racism because their teachers or even classmates brag about their ethnicity and they seclude themselves from other students.