Bakersfield College students who support the creation of a Chicano Studies Department are being asked by a campus club to walk out of their classes at 10:30 a.m. Monday.
The staged protest, which is being organized by M.E.Ch.A.(Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan), will be the group’s latest attempt to draw the attention to the need for more Chicano studies classes.
The group held a press conference Sept. 4 and addressed the Kern Community College District Board of Trustees the following day.
The Monday walkout, which will be one of a number of activities during the week, will be held to emphasize that BC students need more than three Chicano Studies classes, said Leon Arellano, a BC graduate. The college needs a Chicano Studies Department, he maintains.
“Department. That says it all. That’s the bottom line. They’ve been dancing around the issue, and it boils down to just one word: Department. That’s it,” he said.
And Arellano said that the club will be staging the protest even though administrators are concerned about getting negative press before the Kern Community College District’s $180 million bond issue goes to the voters on Nov. 5.
“We’ve been told, ‘Look, this bond issue’s coming up in November. Don’t bring bad press to BC. We need the voters to cast their votes with a clear conscience.’
“What I’ve got to say to that is BC already is having bad press, because of the construction funds that have been mismanaged, (and) the controversy over the pool. I think there was one gentleman who donated $300,000 and then he was told that his children could not swim in the pool. … The fact that the administration has been unstable. I think that the entire three years I was here, there was interim this, interim that.”
Ken Meier, vice president of student learning, could not be reached for comment Wednesday about Arellano’s comments regarding the administration. He did explain in an interview Tuesday his concerns about BC creating a Chicano Studies Department.
“We’ve got hundreds and hundreds of students who couldn’t get into math, English, social science, history classes. … If I had the money, I could have offered 30 or 40 more sections of core courses, so I have to do this cost-benefit analysis in my own mind about what is the greatest good for the greatest number of students. So right now if I have to choose between supporting a full-time department chair, or supporting another 20 or 30 sections of math and English, this is a difficult decision, but I have to ask what is going to benefit the most Hispanic students in the long run?”
Meier said that faculty members are responsible for creating new curriculum, not the administration. Even if a new department is created, it would still need state approval, he said. Any new classes would have to be transferrable.
“I really want to be able to guarantee our students will be able to transfer, or what’s the point of coming to Bakersfield College? And quite frankly, I don’t think people who demand curriculum at the college necessarily understand these articulation issues.”
M.E.Ch.A. leaders say they’ve been trying to get a Chicano Studies Department created for the past three years.
Meier said he has shared an August memo with M.E.Ch.A. that would establish a Chicano studies program. A department proposal would have to be approved by the Academic Senate and faculty union. The entire process could take more than two years, according to the memo.