Faculty Statement on Racism and Campus Climate at UCSD

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    n/a
  • Send To:
    Faculty Colleagues, UCSD Administration and UC Regents
  • Sponsored By:
    Black Faculty of UCSD
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As faculty of African descent here at the University of California, San Diego, we write to express our disgust at the racist and misogynist events of last week. We hope that the students understand that we stand alongside them. We thank those colleagues who have contacted us individually and collectively to express their anger at the attitudes and behavior of the members of Pi Kappa Alpha and the Koala. We ask that the entire faculty join us in a demonstration of common outrage, and assist us in moving forward by signaling agreement with the ideas expressed in this statement.

As the undergraduate students have explained, both the Compton Cookout and the racist drivel broadcast on SR-TV are indicative of a broader campus climate of hostility and neglect. We believe that UC San Diego must act strongly, both to sanction appropriately those responsible for these events and, equally importantly, to augment our intellectual and personal commitment to confronting the problems of outreach, yield, and retention in respect to underrepresented communities in generaland African
American students in particularon our campus. We are proud of the many efforts made by dedicated faculty, students and staff across the campus aimed at fostering a more hospitable environment, improving yield, and producing curricular innovation. We share their fear of the devastating long-term effects that will result if this university acquires a national or international reputation for intolerance and bigotry.

We stand today at a crossroads. Addressing the academic and student affairs needs of historically underrepresented groups remains one of this institutions most glaring areas of unfulfilled promise. In the previous decade, the university has convened a number of committees charged with improving admissions and undergraduate yield, faculty equity and diversity, and the larger climate and reputation of UCSD. We do not wish to see further duplication. We have had task forces: now we need resources. We understand that the university faces a profound financial crisis. Nevertheless, we believe that this crisis cannot become the rationale for any slackening of efforts in regard to racial and ethnic diversity, increased educational access, or the creation of a campus climate that accurately reflects the UCSD mission of the fullest possible access to education, research, and public service.

We ask our colleagues from across the campus to add their voices to ours by signing on to this letter.

787 Signatures

  • Daniel Widener
    • affiliation
    • Department of History, UCSD
  • Sara Clarke Kaplan
    • affiliation
    • Ethnic Studies, UCSD
  • Fatima El-Tayeb
    • affiliation
    • Department of Literature, UCSD
  • Boatema Boateng
    • affiliation
    • Department of Communication, UCSD
  • Cauleen Smith
    • affiliation
    • Visual Arts / African American Studies Minor
  • Ivan Evans
    • affiliation
    • Sociology, UCSD
  • Sara Johnson
    • affiliation
    • Department of Literature, UCSD
  • Anthony Davis
    • affiliation
    • Professor of Music, UCSD
  • Nadine George-Graves, Associate Professor
    • affiliation
    • UCSD, Theater and Dance
  • Camille F. Forbes
    • affiliation
    • Associate Professor, Literature Dept.
  • Michael Hanson
    • affiliation
    • Department of Communication, UCSD
  • Dennis R. Childs
    • affiliation
    • Department of Literature
  • Bennetta Jules-Rosette
    • affiliation
    • Department of Sociology, UCSD
  • Tracy Johnson
    • affiliation
    • Division of Biological Sciences
  • Gabriel N. Mendes
    • affiliation
    • Ethnic Studies/USP
  • Joseph W. Watson
    • affiliation
    • Emeritus, Chemistry/Biochemistry, UCSD
  • Denise Ferreira da Silva
    • affiliation
    • Ethnic Studies - UC San Diego
  • Edward Reynolds
  • Roshanak Kheshti
    • affiliation
    • Assistant Professor, Ethnic Studies
  • Rosemary M. George
    • affiliation
    • Literature Dept.
  • Michael Davidson
    • affiliation
    • Literature
  • Lisa Lowe
    • affiliation
    • Literature, UCSD
  • Shelley Streeby
  • Stephanie Jed
    • affiliation
    • Department of Literature
  • Curtis Marez
    • affiliation
    • Associate Professor of Ethnic Studies
  • Gentry Patrick
    • affiliation
    • Biology
  • Patrick Anderson
    • affiliation
    • Communication, UCSD
  • Martha Lampland
    • affiliation
    • Sociology, Science Studies
  • Kathryn Shevelow
    • affiliation
    • Literature Dept.
  • Lisa Lampert-Weissig
    • affiliation
    • UC San Diego
  • Linda Brodkey
    • affiliation
    • UCSD
  • Anna Joy Springer
    • affiliation
    • Literature/Writing
  • Lisa Yoneyama
    • affiliation
    • UCSD, Critical Gender Studies Program
  • Meg Wesling
    • affiliation
    • Literature, UCSD
  • Marcel Henaff
    • affiliation
    • Literature and Political Science
  • Larissa Nausicaa Heinrich
    • affiliation
    • Literature
  • Kirstie A. Dorr
    • affiliation
    • UC San Diego
  • David Theo Goldberg
    • affiliation
    • University of California, Irvine
  • Jin Lee
    • affiliation
    • UCSD
  • angie chabram-dernersesian
  • Jorge Mariscal
    • affiliation
    • Chicano/Latino Studies, UCSD
  • Sarah Shun-lien Bynum
    • affiliation
    • University of California, San Diego
  • David Serlin
    • affiliation
    • Department of Communication, UCSD
  • Misha Kokotovic
    • affiliation
    • Dept. of Literature, UCSD
  • Kip Fulbeck
    • affiliation
    • Department of Art, UCSB
  • George Lipsitz
    • affiliation
    • Black Studies and Sociology, UCSB
  • Rebecca Klatch
    • affiliation
    • Professor of Sociology
  • Tara McPherson
    • affiliation
    • USC
  • Max Parra
    • affiliation
    • Department of Literature
  • Rabab Ibrahim Abdulhadi
    • affiliation
    • Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas Initiative-San Francisco State University