by Duane Campbell
I just returned from a panel discussion at Sac State by faculty and students on Reclaim the University. The event was sponsored by Students for Quality Education an organizing group with years of experience. There were strong positions on the need to hire new ethnic faculty made by both faculty and students. Student after student reported that they had few contacts with ethnic faculty. While there are some 22% of the students who are Latino, less than 6 % of the faculty are Latinos - less today than in 1974.
African Americans are similarly under represented.
I just returned from a panel discussion at Sac State by faculty and students on Reclaim the University. The event was sponsored by Students for Quality Education an organizing group with years of experience. There were strong positions on the need to hire new ethnic faculty made by both faculty and students. Student after student reported that they had few contacts with ethnic faculty. While there are some 22% of the students who are Latino, less than 6 % of the faculty are Latinos - less today than in 1974.
African Americans are similarly under represented.
In 1972 the Government Dept. at Sac State had 2 African
American faculty members and one Latino.
Today that department has 1 African American faculty member. A parallel decline in Chicano/Latino faculty
has occurred in the History Department and in the College of Education.
A major contributor to the problem in the College of Education has been the elimination of the Department of Bilingual/Multicultural Education.
When the BMED department existed from 1994- 2010, Mexican American/Latino credential students
in the College constituted some 34 % of the total students enrolled. Since the elimination of the department
Mexican American/Latino students constitute some 6% of the students in teacher
preparation. Latino students make up more than 40% of the students in local k-12 schools. Who will be their teachers?
