http://xpress.sfsu.edu/archives/news/013676.html
by Natalie Leal, staff writer
October 8, 2009
SF State is home to an academic conference Oct. 7 - 10 commemorating
the 40th anniversary of the first established College of Ethnic
Studies in the nation.
The conference, "Ethnic Studies 40 Years Later: Race, Resistance and
Relevance," focuses on the founding of the College of Ethnic Studies
at SF State and its evolution over the past 40 years. It includes
three days of presentations and performances by over 130 participants
from seven countries and 35 universities.
"Right now, the black studies program is not doing enough work in the
community," said Terry Collins, a former Black Panther Party member
who began attending SF State in the fall of 1967 and had a hand in
organizing the strike that eventually led to the college's creation.
"All students won't be students eventually," he said.
"They have to be committed to the people. If a person doesn't know
their history, then you'll never be able to do anything," Collins said.
American Indian studies Prof. Robert Keith Collins, no relation to
Terry Collins, helped coordinate the conference and will be
discussing his paper addressing people of both African and Native
American descent. He said he wishes to see an interdisciplinary
dialogue and a large student turnout.
"It's really important for people to see what it means to be a member
of this educational community," Collins said. "Students don't
understand what it means to be the only campus with a College of
Ethnic Studies."
"The conference isn't limiting itself to the traditional format of
conference panels," said Katynka Z. Martínez, assistant professor in
the raza studies department. "Instead, it is offering round-table
discussions, workshops, performances and film screenings with Q&A sessions."
The College of Ethnic Studies was formed as a result of a nearly
five-month-long strike led by SF State's Black Student Union and the
Third World Liberation Front.
Jason Ferreira, professor in race and resistance studies, said the
creation of the College of Ethnic Studies changed SF State's campus,
along with other campuses across the nation, and revolutionized
higher education.
"People of color on this campus and most places were invisible and
not part of the collegiate experience," Ferreira said. "We are the
only College of Ethnic Studies in the nation and the world. That
speaks to the power the students in 1968 and 1969 had."
While other universities have since implemented ethnic studies
programs and departments, such as the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln's Institute of Ethnic Studies, SF State's college
was the first in the nation.
According to Ferreira, years of organizing at SF State went into
raising consciousness for this movement, and in the spring of 1968
the University hired a sociologist, Nathan Hare, to develop the first
black studies program in the country.
The University did not follow through with plans for the program and
the BSU, realizing their issues were not being dealt with, called for
a strike that November.
According to Ferreira, the BSU put forth 10 demands that proposed
changes in the University curriculum and admissions to better empower
people of color. Days after the strike began, another ethnic activist
group, the Third World Liberation Front, added five more demands to
that list. As a result, other strikes rippled across the nation, some
campuses protesting in solidarity with the students of SF State.
The students won after a struggle that included police brutality and
mass student arrests. The strikers' demands were met and the strike
ended in March of 1969. The College of Ethnic Studies opened the
following semester.
The departments created within this College were: raza studies, black
studies (now Africana studies), Asian American studies and American
Indian studies.
Over time, Arab and Muslim ethnicities and diasporas have been
included in the department of ethnic studies, which is also proposing
a critical race and resistance studies program.
Conference organizer Raphael Allen said panels will include oral
histories, discussions on topics ranging from the history that pushed
the college into existence, the future of the field of ethnic studies
and the application of ethnic studies to the non-academic world.
Allen was very impressed by the effort faculty from the College of
Ethnic Studies devoted to the conference.
"I noticed how energetically faculty got involved, considering how
rigorously they work," Allen said. "They did more work than I've ever
seen a conference committee do in the 12 years I've been doing this."
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E-mail Natalie Leal @ nleal@sfsu.edu
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