SR 20-04 - Resolution in Opposition to Chancellor’s Proposed Implementation of AB 1460

WHEREAS, AB1460 mandates one three-unit Ethnic Studies course as a Graduation Requirement for CSU students graduating in 2024-25; and

WHEREAS, AB 1460 requires Ethnic Studies courses to be identified and approved for inclusion in the 2021-22 catalog; and

WHEREAS, AB1460 requires the CSU to collaborate with the CSU Council on Ethnic Studies and the Academic Senate of the CSU to develop core competencies; and

WHEREAS, in opposition to AB 1460, the Chancellor’s Office proposed to the CSU Board of Trustees a new General Education Area F of Ethnic Studies and Social Justice and a simultaneous reduction of Area D by 3 units; and

WHEREAS, The Board of Trustees approved said proposal at their July 2020 meeting; and

WHEREAS, On September 10, 2020, the Chancellor’s Office issued a memo requiring campuses to implement the new General Education requirement, “Area F,” mandating that the ethnic studies requirement be lower division; and

WHEREAS, the only established Ethnic Studies programs on the CSUCI campus include the Chicana/o Studies department and the newly established Africana Studies minor, whose faculty are experts in designing and executing curriculum in Ethnic Studies and can identify which courses meet the core competencies; and

WHEREAS, the Ethnic Studies Faculty at CSUCI have the expertise to determine in collaboration with other curricular entities, how AB1460 should best be implemented on our campus within the parameters of the law and the spirit and purpose of the law; and

WHEREAS, AB-1460 does not specify the Ethnic Studies course be a GE requirement; and

WHEREAS, AB-1460 does not specify the Ethnic Studies course be an upper-division or lower- division course; and

WHEREAS, Eight CSU campuses have already passed a similar resolution against the Chancellor’s Office’s proposal of implementation of AB1460 without the collaboration with the CSU Council of Ethnic Studies; and

WHEREAS, the Ethnic Studies Council at CSUCI fully supports Ethnic Studies as a graduation requirement, as expressed in AB 1460 and opposes placing the requirement solely in lower division General Education.

BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED, that the Academic Senate of CSUCI asks the CSU Chancellor’s Office to rescind their Title V July 2020 changes; and further

BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED, that students be given flexibility in meeting the Ethnic Studies requirement with either lower division or upper division courses as determined by our campus faculty, including the Ethnic Studies Council of CI and the Senate’s Ethnic Studies Task Force; and further

BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED, that the CSU Chancellor’s Office recognize that Ethnic Studies is an interdisciplinary field that requires Arts and Humanities and Social Sciences, and that the AB1460 ES requirement can be fulfilled in these areas; and further

BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED, that the CSU Chancellor’s Office rescind its GE plan because it does not have the authority to restrict this ES requirement to be a GE and be subjected to GE regulations; and further

BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED, that this be distributed to Chancellor White, EVC Blanchard, ASCSU Chair, CSU Council on Ethnic Studies, Council of Academic Senate Chairs, and Respective Deans and Chairs on our campus.

1. https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB1460)