Education
delaying the vote was Tony Thurmond, the state superintendent of public instruction. Other trustees said that their proposal was adequate and that setting course requirements is the domain of CSU and its trustees and not the Legislature.
Lillian Kimbell, the chair of the board, argued that postponing the vote would have been the equivalent to “killing the item” because the Legislature would be able to send AB 1460 to Newsom’s desk before the next Board of Trustees meeting in September, meaning that the governor would have to make a de
cision before the trustees could weigh in.
Chancellor Tim White and several trustees said their own proposal is sufficient and argued that ethnic studies is at the proposal’s core, even though it doesn’t specifically require students to take a class in ethnic studies. The requirement could be satisfied by a range of courses, including disciplines that explore other historically oppressed groups, such as LGBTQ or Jewish studies.
“The proposal champions the study of racial and ethnic groups and gives students a chance to connect with other marginalized groups,” White told the trustees.
The idea of requiring students to study the contributions and histories of
nonwhite ethnic and racial groups is long-standing in California.
The current push, though, is happening after nationwide anti-racism protests that were ignited by the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
“Advocates for making a course in ethnic studies a requirement for graduation have waited long enough for the CSU to act,” a group of 20 lawmakers said in a letter to White. “The changes proposed by the Chancellor’s office will significantly water down the intent of AB 1460 and will result in something akin to a ‘diversity’ requirement, which was not developed in collaboration with the CSU Council on Ethnic Studies.”
The five trustees who voted against CSU’S proposal were Silas Abrego, Hugo Morales, Lateefah Simon, student trustee Maryana Khames and Thurmond, who is an ex-officio member in his role as state superintendent of public instruction.
“A s I understand it, ethnic studies really is the movement where we should hold the fidelity to four groups, in particular African Americans, Chicanos and Latinos, Indigenous people and Asian Pacific Islanders,” Thurmond said during the meeting. “While there are very important conversations to have for others who may fall outside those groups, it has been impressed on me that that’s the basis of ethnic studies.”