Cal State LA Considers Suspending Asian and Asian American Studies
California State University, Los Angeles, is one of the most diverse universities in the country. Student enrollment demographics this year are about 55% Latino, 22% Asian American/Pacific Islander, 15% white non-Latino, and 8% African American. Since 1972, students of color have comprised the majority. Cal State LA established the first Chicano Studies program in the nation in 1968. Minority Access, Inc, named the school one of America’s top colleges that exemplifies diversity. It has received the President’s Award for Diversity from the national accreditation organization for engineering education.So it seems almost unbelievable that one of the country’s most diverse universities with a history of pioneering ethnic and area studies is considering suspending its Asian and Asian American Studies program. Despite increased interest in the program — a spike in enrollment in the program’s introductory class (over 40 students each semester) and a higher number of new majors each year — the school’s dean, Jim Henderson, has
The Ban Plays On: Two California Universities Ax Ethnic Studies
Looks like California's celebration of Martin Luther King Day took a turn for the... Arizonian. This month students and faculties from two California campuses are fighting the demolition of their ethnic studies programs: Asian American Studies and Cal State Los Angeles and American Studies at the University of California Santa Cruz.Late last year Dean James Henderson at CSULA offered students and faculty a grim holiday gift – notification that he had decided to suspend Asian American Studies, indefinitely. To date, the only explanation Henderson has offered is lack of faculty, student, and community support – which he announced at a November 29 meeting to a roomful of concerned faculty, students, and community members. Since then, a grassroots movement in support of retaining the program has been swelling both on and off campus.
CSULA is located in the San Gabriel Valley, which holds one of the largest Chinese populations in the country. Asian American Studies – which was just established in 2005 – failed in the Dean's eyes to meet enrollment