March 24, 2016
Office of the President
Academic Affairs and Office of the Provost
San Francisco State University
1600 Holloway Avenue, Administration Building 562
San Francisco, CA 94132
Dear President Wong and Provost Rosser:
We the undersigned are students, faculty, and staff of the Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice at the University of British Columbia. We stand in solidarity with the students, faculty, and staff of the College of Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State University and support all of their demands to resolve the budget crisis and advance Ethnic Studies. We write to express our concern with the proposed budget cut for Ethnic Studies, as well as the lack of budget transparency at San Francisco State University.
We believe that the significant budget cut for Ethnic Studies would severely impact SFSU students’ academic, intellectual and political endeavors. It would also directly impact faculty’s research and teaching goals, as well as staff employment.
We commend SFSU for “honor[ing] roots, stimulat[ing] intellectual and personal development” and “promot[ing] equity,” as stated in its mission statement. We believe that the College of Ethnic Studies at SF State is an integral part of this mission. As Ethnic Studies is a department dedicated to exploring and teaching topics of diversity, equity, and social justice, it is contradictory to SFSU’s mission to neglect the department.
San Francisco State University was the first university in the United States to hold a strike for and achieve the establishing of a College of Ethnic Studies. Today, the Ethnic Studies discipline has expanded and reached various universities and schools throughout the United States, and has been influential to those studying similar subjects here in Canada as well. To honor SFSU’s roots is to honor the historically, politically, and socially influential College of Ethnic Studies.
We urge the administrators, Provost and Vice-President for Academic Affairs, Sue Rosser, and President Wong to comply with the demands of Ethnic Studies and to consult with them in order to strategize and move forward.
In solidarity:
Dr. Denise Ferreira da Silva
Jen Sung
Dr. John Paul Catungal
Marianne Mesfin
Nadia Yang
Sarah Bellis
Dr. Sarah Rudrum
Susan Bahaduri
Vesna Stoicovici
Dr. Dina Al-Kassim
Dr. Janice Stewart
Taq Bhandal
Amel Aldehaib
Kristi Carey
Alison Watts-Grant
Peter Wanyenya
Jeneba Kamara
Jannel Robertson
Shruti Buddhavarapu
Dr. Litsa Chatzivasileiou
Anna Ward
K. Ho
Hanna Dahlstrom
Jacqueline Marchioni
Brett Glover
Karina Kwok
Andy Holmes
Jean Dong
Julia Dumbrell
Daisy Couture
Cate McCord
Clay Roth
Britta Eklöf
Derrick Gravener
Ghada Dbouba
Zoe Arthur
Cecilia Wang
Philip Kuligowski Chan
Cassandra Ly
Sharareh Saremi
