African American, Asian American, Chicano and Native American students organized in 1968 and 1969 as the Third World Liberation Front, demanding the end of all forms of racism within UC Berkeley. “The end of racism requires that specific people are proportionately represented in terms of faculty, administrators and specific numbers of admissions,” Oden said.
The Council for Affirmative Action panelist speakers called Sacramento State students to action April 3, demanding diversity amongst faculty in a forum presentation marking 60 years since the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education deemed separate but equal segregation in education as unconstitutional.
The forum presentation consisted of professors from different departments including: ethnic studies, government, criminal justice and Native American studies and discussed issues of equity, access to higher education and social justice that affect students today. It also highlighted activism efforts by students facing similar issues in the past and called students to action if they wanted change.
“We are reaching a very perilous moment right now,” said government professor Robert Oden in his introductory speech. “These programs are under attack, and the hiring of professors of color is dropping dramatically and students are asleep or busy doing other things to notice. Either one is unacceptable.”
[…]
