Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
California Requires Ethnic Studies for University System
gvw_ap_news
By Associated Press
Published 4 years ago on
August 18, 2020

Share

SACRAMENTO — Students at California State University, the nation’s largest four-year public university system, will need to take an ethnic studies course to graduate under a bill signed Monday by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

The change comes amid the national reckoning over racism and police brutality sparked by the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. It represents the first change to the CSU general education curriculum in over 40 years.

Under the measure, beginning in the 2021-2022 academic year, all 23 CSU campuses must offer courses on race and ethnicity. Beginning with 2024-2025 graduates, students must take a three-credit course to graduate.

The system enrolls over 481,000 students.

The bill will cost an estimated $16 million to implement.

The bill says the programs will have a special focus on “four historically defined racialized core groups: Native Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans, and Latina and Latino Americans.”

“Studies have found that both students of color and white students benefit academically as well as socially from taking ethnic studies courses. Ethnic studies courses play an important role in building an inclusive multicultural democracy,” according to the text of the measure, which was authored by Assemblywoman Shirley Weber, D-San Diego.

The Measure Will Overrule Reforms Approved by the University’s Board of Trustees Last Month

“This bill reflects 50 years of student, faculty, and community advocacy for curriculum reflective of and responsive to our diverse state,” Weber tweeted.

The university had opposed the measure for over a year. The measure would set a “dangerous precedent for legislative interference” with the curriculum, Toni Molle, CSU’s director of public affairs, wrote before the measure was signed.

A call to Molle seeking comment Monday night wasn’t immediately returned.

Critics in the state Senate argued that the bill wouldn’t count studies of other ethnic groups that have faced oppression, such as Armenians, and said the measure would pose a financial burden on campuses already facing uncertain school years and lean budgets because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The measure will overrule reforms approved by the university’s Board of Trustees last month that required students to take ethnic studies and social justice courses on a wider array of marginalized communities, including Jewish, Muslim and LGBTQ groups. Under that plan, students could have met their graduation requirement by taking courses on social justice that explored issues such as the criminal justice system and public health disparities.

DON'T MISS

Religion Has Been in Decline. This Christmas Seems Different.

DON'T MISS

California Limits Junk Fees: New Law Blocks Fines for Declined ATM Withdrawals

DON'T MISS

Research Finds Vaccines Are Not Behind the Rise in Autism. So What Is?

DON'T MISS

New ‘Superman’ Trailer Is Most Watched for Warner Bros., DC Comics Online

DON'T MISS

Elon Musk Is Creating His Own Texas Town. Hundreds Already Live There.

DON'T MISS

Amazon and Starbucks Workers Are Striking. What Does It Mean for Labor Under Trump?

DON'T MISS

CalFire Shares 2024’s Top Images. See Highlights of Intense Wildfire Season.

DON'T MISS

While Sherrod Motors to Boise, Entz’s Bulldogs Add a Coach, Transfers, Recruits

DON'T MISS

California and Texas Duke It Out for Worst State to Raise a Family

DON'T MISS

Musk Slams ‘Wokepedia’ for Biased Editing, Urges Donation Boycott

UP NEXT

Elon Musk Is Creating His Own Texas Town. Hundreds Already Live There.

UP NEXT

Amazon and Starbucks Workers Are Striking. What Does It Mean for Labor Under Trump?

UP NEXT

CalFire Shares 2024’s Top Images. See Highlights of Intense Wildfire Season.

UP NEXT

California and Texas Duke It Out for Worst State to Raise a Family

UP NEXT

Musk Slams ‘Wokepedia’ for Biased Editing, Urges Donation Boycott

UP NEXT

Explore the Holiday Magic in California’s Death Valley

UP NEXT

California Residents on Edge as High Surf and Flooding Threats Persist on Christmas Eve

UP NEXT

Illegal Immigrant Faces Murder Charges in Death of Woman Lit on Fire in NYC Subway

UP NEXT

2 Rescued After Santa Cruz Wharf Partially Collapses Due to Heavy Surf From Major Pacific Storm

UP NEXT

Bill Clinton Is Hospitalized With a Fever but in Good Spirits, Spokesperson Says

New ‘Superman’ Trailer Is Most Watched for Warner Bros., DC Comics Online

5 hours ago

Elon Musk Is Creating His Own Texas Town. Hundreds Already Live There.

6 hours ago

Amazon and Starbucks Workers Are Striking. What Does It Mean for Labor Under Trump?

6 hours ago

CalFire Shares 2024’s Top Images. See Highlights of Intense Wildfire Season.

24 hours ago

While Sherrod Motors to Boise, Entz’s Bulldogs Add a Coach, Transfers, Recruits

24 hours ago

California and Texas Duke It Out for Worst State to Raise a Family

1 day ago

Musk Slams ‘Wokepedia’ for Biased Editing, Urges Donation Boycott

1 day ago

Explore the Holiday Magic in California’s Death Valley

1 day ago

Visalia Unlicensed Driver Smashes Into Home. No Injuries Reported.

1 day ago

Penn State’s Schumacher-Cawley Is 1st Female Coach to Win NCAA Volleyball Title

1 day ago

Religion Has Been in Decline. This Christmas Seems Different.

Opinion by Ross Douthat on Dec. 21, 2024. In March, I drove with my family up from Rome into the mountains of southeastern Umbria, to reach ...

2 hours ago

Photo of a Christmas tree in the NORAD Tracks Santa Center at Peterson Air Force Base
2 hours ago

Religion Has Been in Decline. This Christmas Seems Different.

4 hours ago

California Limits Junk Fees: New Law Blocks Fines for Declined ATM Withdrawals

An autistic boy with his mother at home in Texas, Aug. 5, 2023. There is no blood test or brain scan to determine who has autism, and with no singular cause, there is no singular culprit behind autism’s rise. (Callaghan O'Hare/The New York Times)
4 hours ago

Research Finds Vaccines Are Not Behind the Rise in Autism. So What Is?

5 hours ago

New ‘Superman’ Trailer Is Most Watched for Warner Bros., DC Comics Online

The SpaceX starship rocket near the Starbase launchpad in Boca Chica, Texas, Feb. 21, 2024. Employees of SpaceX have filed a formal petition to create the city of Starbase. (Meridith Kohut/The New York Times)
6 hours ago

Elon Musk Is Creating His Own Texas Town. Hundreds Already Live There.

6 hours ago

Amazon and Starbucks Workers Are Striking. What Does It Mean for Labor Under Trump?

24 hours ago

CalFire Shares 2024’s Top Images. See Highlights of Intense Wildfire Season.

24 hours ago

While Sherrod Motors to Boise, Entz’s Bulldogs Add a Coach, Transfers, Recruits

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend