The Los Angeles Black Student Union sent a letter of demands on November 22, 2015 to campus president William Covino. After nine months the university has approved the unions demands for separate housing for black students.
The letter listed various demands including a housing solution for black students. The space would be used for black CSULA students to “congregate, connect and learn from each other.”
The demands were in response to what the members of the union called frequent “racists attacks” and “racially insensitive” remarks on campus.
“Black students at Cal State University Los Angeles have been, and still are, consistently made the targets of racist attacks by fellow students, faculty and administration,” addressed the letter sent to the campus president.
Housing will be under the new Halsi Scholars Black Living-learning community.The new program “focuses on academic excellence and learning experiences that are inclusive and non discriminatory,” says CSULA spokesman Robert Lopez.
Members of the community will have about 20 spots in the 192 unit dorm complex for black students and open to any students that want to join.
“People here, they come from so many places. So when you see someone from your own race you can learn from them,” Karina Orta said to CBS.
The letter also demanded $20,000 per quarter allocated to the black student union and cultural competency training to all school employees. Many people have expressed their thoughts on social media about this issue, and the majority are outraged.
One person tweeted, “Ultimately hypocritical for the so called progressives,” another even said, “Are we back in the 60s?”
It is upsetting to see that the student union is setting things back 100 years with self segregation.
It is surprising the school would approve of students wanting to segregate themselves after going through so much during the 50s and 60s to integrate schools.
The Supreme Court orders the lower federal courts to require desegregation in The Brown II.
There is nothing more exciting that interacting with people from different ethnicities and cultures. Segregating housing might be a great way for students of the same race or background to socialize but restricts them from learning more about ethnicity outside their own.
In todays society we hear more than just english while walking on the street and majority of the time the person next to us is of a different race. So why segregation?
Federal judges held more than 200 school desegregation hearing in between 1955 and 1960.
The Brown v. Board and The Little Rock Nine all seems like issues from the past and problems we have overcome.
Fighting for years to have integrated schools to result in segregated housing seems as if society has taken 100 steps backwards and isolating ourselves from the diverse and multicultural community we live in will only hurt students.
Separate housing seems to extreme for an issue that has and might always be around. Racism can still be seen on many campus, however segregation is not the answer.
Although the separate housing is open to anyone who, “shares the same interest and concerns,” many people are against it.
Los Angeles Daily News said it the best. They believe segregating campuses violates the university’s moral and legal responsibilities.
“They will miss significant opportunities to build strong multiracial bonds during their college experiences.” said Los Angeles Daily News.
CSULA is not the only campus segregating its housing, UConn, UC Davis, UC Santa Barbara and Berkeley offer racially segregated housing.
The campus is just one of many universities across the state that segregates its housing to satisfy its students needs.
Since the campus has approved the action, their website has updated their Housing Services page.
They now have a paragraph on the new black living-learning community stating it’s an effort to, “enhance the residential experience for students who are a part of or interested in issues of concern to the black community living on campus.”