B ULLETI N California State University, Dominguez Hills
SEPTEMBER 9, 2020 • VOL. 26, NO. 1
csudhbulletin.com
All Dressed Up But No One to Roam
@dhbulletin
#Scholar Strike ROBERT RIOS Campus Editor Editor’s Note: For the full version visit #ScholarStrike at csudhbulletin.com.
Iracema Navarro Bulletin
The new science building’s grand opening plans have been derailed by the coronavirus. DANIEL TOM Staff Reporter In a perfect world, or at least one not turned upside down due to a global pandemic, the opening of the new Science and Innovation build-
ing on the California State University, Dominguez Hills campus this semester would have been one of pomp and circumstance. The ceremonial ribbon-cutting in front of a gathering of distinguished alumni, former
administrators and faculty. The local politicians. The shout-outs to the Toyota USA Foundation, which donated $4 million toward the high-tech Toyota Center for Innovation, and HGA, the Los Angeles architectural firm that designed
the sleek, three-story building. Maybe a few TV crews and more than a few curious onlookers from the surrounding community. But instead, the most [See Building, page 4]
The two-day grassroots campaign spawned by Twitter, #ScholarStrike, in which some 6,000 faculty members across the country are shifting the focus of their classes to teachins centered on issues of social justice and anti-racism ,is being felt at California State University, Dominguez Hills. The event’s organizers put out a call Aug. 26 to faculty across the country to withhold their labor yesterday and today in order to bring attention to state violence against people of color. But rather than a general strike, in which faculty members would not report to work, #ScholarStrike is more of a teaching moment, in which instructors would open up their classes to conversations about social justice and anti-racism. CSUDH faculty members were not required to participate and there were no confirmed numbers who did yesterday or may today. In an Instagram [See Strike, page 5]
Solidarity and Healing
IRACEMA NAVARRO Political Editor
Nearly 300 people participated in the “It Takes a Village Black Lives Matter Healing and Solidarity” event last Thursday designed to serve as a bridge between faculty, staff, and students to support social change and anti-racism. But though it happened the second week of this new semester, and served as a localized launching point for an examination of the issues that have roiled across this country all summer, it was also a continuation of a conversation that
this campus, even virtually, has conducted since the eruption of protests in the wake of the May 25 killing of George Floyd. On June 9, the CSUDH Department of Africana Studies issued a statement in solidarity with what it termed the “Movement for Black Lives.” It denounced the term “violent protests,” and, as academics, demanded a more “critical analysis” of the activation of “not only a national but international movement that has mobilized a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, multi-religious, multi-lingual, inter-class movement.”
The statement was not solely concerned with that greater movement. It also included 10 demands “in the interest of supporting Black students, faculty and staff on this campus,” ranging from increasing the numbers of Black students and tenured faculty, hiring more psychologists trained in culturally relevant counseling, additional resources for academic cultural and emotional support to Black women studenst by Black women faculty and staff, and the immediate creation of resource centers for Asian American and Latinx students. That was followed over the
Courtesy Image Nearly 300 people participated in last week’s healing event.
next few days by the majority of campus academic departments issuing statements of support and solidarity with the Africana
Studies Department. On June 10, an anti-racism [See Village, page 5]