A petition to save the departmental status of Africana studies at Cal State Long Beach is less than 900 signatures away from reaching its goal.
The petition was created by President of the Africana studies Student Association (ASSA) Brittany Brooks. As of late Wednesday, it had received 4,112 signatures since its creation in May, and Brooks said she is not surprised by the support.
“A lot of people believe it is unfair to downgrade [the department] to a program,” Brooks said. “I’m sure the amount of signatures will increase.”
In late April, the ASSA and the African Student Union held a rally to bring attention to a proposal by College of Liberal Arts Dean David Wallace to turn the department into a program.
Brooks said she believes turning Africana studies into a program will degrade it. Her concern, she said, is that if the department is turned into a program, teachers from different departments — who don’t specialize in the field — will likely teach the classes.
“Downgrading it to a program shows a lack of value to Africana studies,” she said.
The petition, which can be found on change.org, states that a well-rounded education must include Africana studies.
“Quality education by definition is multicultural education, [and] one of the fundamental aims in CSULB is to promote diversity,” Maulana Karenga, chair of the Africana studies department, said.
The petition also states that changing the department into a program “is a step toward the eventual dissolution of Africana studies at CSULB.”
Wallace said he agrees that Africana studies is a critical part of the curriculum at CSULB and that there is no attempt to abolish it.
“I asked the Africana studies faculty to conduct a curriculum review to make sure that the courses necessary to support the [major] and the minor can regularly be offered despite steady decline in the numbers of majors and minors,” Wallace said.
Currently, there are only three tenured faculty in the Africana studies department, but six tenured faculty are needed to retain departmental status, according to the petition.
The petition also says that former CSULB President F. King Alexander had refused to hire new faculty in the department for eight years, which led to low faculty numbers.
Wallace said he disagrees.
“Every department in the college is going through curriculum review,” Wallace said. “Philosophy took a much bigger cut.”
If Wallace’s proposal goes through, the program status would not be permanent and could change if there is more demand for the courses, the CLA dean said.
Brooks said she believes the amount of support and signatures will persuade the CLA to let Africana studies continue on as a department.
“If it doesn’t remain a department, they will be offending a lot of people,” she said. “The petition includes signatures from almost every continent … We have worldwide support for this department.”