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It’s a script he thinks more campuses should follow, including the Cal States. Doing that or hosting workshops at the center “becomes a draw” to Black students in search of resources they may not find elsewhere on campus, he said. UCLA education professor Tyrone Howard, who is Black, holds some meetings with students at his campus’ new Black student resource center rather than at his office. If campus data show that Black students are not getting access to counseling, 'you can fix that, that's a race-neutral fix,' he said, even if that means hiring more culturally competent counselors. A public college or university in California can target a racial or ethnic group for a program, as long as other groups aren’t excluded, Saenz said.

But they also say there are other ways around the amendment. Scholars of racism who spoke with CalMatters are frustrated that Proposition 209 requires a race-neutral answer to a race-specific problem. Saenz, president and general counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, a civil rights legal group that has argued before the U.S. In theory, the federal government could require the Cal State system to spend more money specifically on resources for Black students given the wide gaps in graduation rates, but such federal action rarely happens, said Thomas A. While the state constitutional amendment ended the use of race as a factor in public college admissions in California, it also made it illegal to use state or federal funds exclusively for any single racial or ethnic group. In 1996, voters passed Proposition 209 and in 2020 they struck down a measure to overturn the proposition. One way to boost graduation would be to specifically target Black students with extra tutoring, counseling and other approaches that research suggests improves graduation rates.īut California voters - twice - said colleges can’t do that. Your guide to the 2022 general election in California Proposition 209 The others: Chico State, Dominguez Hills, Fresno State, Humboldt, Pomona, San Bernardino, San Francisco State, San Luis Obispo, San Marcos and Sonoma State. The campus is also one of 11 at which graduation rates for Black students who started as freshmen have fallen in the past four years. CSU Channel Islands enrolls just 121 undergraduate and graduate Black students - second lowest in the system. That tiny population is one reason CSU Channel Islands has the widest gap between Black students and their non-underrepresented peers, said campus provost Mitch Avila. Photo by Larry Valenzuela for CalMattersĪt some Cal State campuses, there is simply not a critical mass of Black students to create a sense of community. “I had had enough.” Fresno State students congregate near a fountain at the center of campus in Fresno, on Wednesday, Feb. “It was definitely the anti-Blackness,” she said. Despite an offer of a raise and tenure, Johnson left Chico State to start a tenured position in Illinois this fall. But she’ll be finishing that paper from afar. Johnson is working on a paper detailing other microaggressions Black students report experiencing at Chico State, such as a white professor who made a hurtful joke that a Black student not shoot a weapon when they raised their hand in class.

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“When the university does not support research and services that involve that change, then the university is basically saying they will not support us, they only want our Black skin color, they only want to show us in the pictures, but they want us quiet.” “Many Black people come into academia wanting to ‘be the change we want to see in the world,’ and so we direct our studies and our research and our service toward that change,” Johnson said. Universities also send a message to Black students and faculty with the kind of programming and research they choose to support - or not, Johnson said. “The CSUs just really have not done a proper job of providing the educational supports that Black students need,” said Lesa Johnson, a Black sociology professor who has chronicled reported instances of anti-Blackness at Chico State. And though the share of Black professors is similar to the share of Black students, some scholars say that’s not enough. Six campuses had no Black employees in therapist roles last year, according to the faculty union that also represents mental health counselors. Also in short supply: mental health and other professionals who understand the unique psychological struggles of Black students, who often are attending universities far from home and in communities that have few Black people. In some cases, financial woes and other life responsibilities can make the path to graduation harder, they said. Students and experts identified a lack of tenured Black faculty role models and inconsistent support for campus Black resource centers that offer a sense of community and belonging as barriers to success.

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