Here’s what more power and resources mean for ethnic studies at Stanislaus State
More power and resources are becoming available to the ethnic studies program at Stanislaus State as it transitions into a department in the spring, aligning with the 50th anniversary of its inception.
The advancement is monumental because for the first time in the university’s history, ethnic studies will have a voice in the academic senate. Faculty also are in the early stages of developing a certificate and masters program for the benefit of educators and others in the workforce, said Xamuel Bañales, director of ethnic studies at Stanislaus State.
The changes are propelled by the passage of Assembly Bill 1460, a new state law requiring incoming college freshmen attending a California State University to complete an ethnic studies course for graduation. It became effective this year.
As a result of the requirement, CSUs received additional funding to help grow and develop ethnic studies across the 23 college campuses. Further, the program’s expansion to become a department means it will be structured to function more autonomously.
Stanislaus, Sacramento, Fresno and Northridge are among the few CSUs to have some sort of ethnic studies department. However, they are behind San Francisco State, Cal State Los Angeles and CSU Fullerton, which already have created a college of ethnic studies.
“Departments … have more access to power,” Bañales said. “It makes a difference.”
With a seat at the academic senate, the department will have a voice on a wide spectrum of issues that it didn’t have as a program. The academic senate represents general faculty, and its purpose is to develop and analyze policies and procedures on academics and fiscal matters, according to the university.
Members also are responsible for making recommendations to the college president.
Bañales said Stanislaus State is ahead of the game when it comes to updating its courses to align with the AB 1460 requirement. That’s because when Bañales was hired in 2016, he realized the curriculum was watered-down, outdated and didn’t excite students, he said.
He took it upon himself to revamp or create 25 courses over a five-year time span, including 10 new sections of introduction to ethnic studies.
“The task at Stan State was made easier by groundwork Bañales and others had already done,” the university shared in a statement.
An administrative coordinator, which the program long has gone without, also will be onboarded under the guidance of the department chair to assist with policies, procedures, budget, curriculum and more, Bañales said. He said one faculty member has already been hired this year and the college plans to hire more for its ethnic studies department.
As of now, Stanislaus State has seven full-time and six part-time ethnic studies instructors.
There also are plans to create a certificate and masters program. The exact title of the certificate program is yet undetermined, but Bañales said it will be for those in the workforce who need to be up to date on the topic.
Moreover, the masters program aims to better prepare educators. Bañales said he’s heard of physical education teachers in high school taking on the responsibility of teaching ethnic studies with no real training in the field.
“We’re not just any class you can teach without any training,” he said.
Professor emeritus reflects on impact
It means a lot to see ethnic studies growing at the university, said Professor Emeritus Richard Luevano, who as a student activist in the late 1960s led the effort for the subject to be taught at Stanislaus State. He gained inspiration for his movement as a member of the AmeriCorps Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA), an organization fighting against poverty through capacity building, where he was assigned to open up a preschool on the Virgin Islands.
Because many members weren’t familiar with the culture, experts and residents were brought in to educate them so that they in turn could be better teachers, he said.
“At that time, I was saying to myself, ‘Why don’t we have that here for our teachers?’” he recalled.
Luevano later started his college education as a returning student at Stanislaus State during a time of protest and unrest in 1968, a time when teaching history about anyone not white or Western was considered radical. But that same year that Luevano started college, students and faculty at San Francisco State took part in what became the longest strike in history at an academic institution, calling for the implementation of ethnic studies and the hiring of a diverse faculty.
He felt further inspired and rallied about 40 students to join his effort, forming the Minority Student Alliance on campus. It took about a year of demonstrations and advocacy, but students were able to convince administrators, former Stanislaus State President Alexander Capurso and his successor Carl Gatlin about the need for ethnic studies.
Luevano helped design and teach the first course in the spring of 1970. He graduated that May, went on to obtain his master’s at San Jose State University, came back to Stanislaus State as a financial aid director in 1971 and in 1972 became one of two full-time ethnic studies teachers at the college.
It is because of his efforts that Stanislaus State is able to celebrate the 50 years since the start of ethnic studies at the university. The college plans to hold an event in the spring to commemorate the anniversary.
But Bañales said the work is far from over. He hopes that one day, Stanislaus State not just a department of ethnic studies but an entire college.
“I look forward to the next 50 years in terms of how we can continue,” he said.
This story was originally published November 23, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
