Resolution in Honor of the ’68 Student Strike at SF State University

Resolution Number: RS19-381
March, 2019
Whereas: 
RATIONALE: Fifty years ago, the students of the Black Student Union, Third World Liberation Front, and affiliates and allied students, faculty, and community members at San Francisco State University, organized to ensure access and relevant education for Indigenous peoples and people of color within university curricula. Their collective demands for respect of diversity, inclusion, and social justice within the campus community have become one of many cornerstones upon which SF State resilience is built and the curricular foundations upon which the departments and fields of African American studies, American Indian Studies, Asian American studies, and Latino/a Studies stand.
Whereas: 
Fifty years ago, the Black Student Union, the Latin American Student Organization, the Mexican American Student Confederation, the Philippine American Collegiate Endeavor, the Intercollegiate Chinese for Social Action and the Asian American Political Alliance, (collectively knowns as the Third World Liberation Front), as well as affiliates and allied students, faculty, and community members organized against discrimination and in support of relevant education at SF State University ; and
Whereas: 
Relevant education was the goal of these forged alliances and enabled greater access and attention to misrepresentation of Indigenous and People of Color within SF State curricula; and
Whereas: 
The demands of these strikers included the creation of the departments of Black Studies, Asian American Studies, La Raza Studies, and Native American Studies at SF State University within the only College of Ethnic Studies in the nation; and
Whereas: 
Their demands lent to a university wide recognition of the need to respect diversity, equity, self-determination, and social justice; be it therefore
Resolved: 
That the Academic Senate of SF State call upon the administration to advance, maintain and further support the College of Ethnic Studies to enable future growth; and be it further
Resolved: 
That the Academic Senate of SF State University honor the legacy of their struggles; and be it further
Resolved: 
That the Academic Senate of SF State University affirm the University’s commitment to preserving and making publicly available the documentary record of their struggles by maintaining relevant archival collections; and be it further
Resolved: 
That the Academic Senate of SF State affirm our commitment to these same values of social justice through courage now etched in the best practices of our campus community; and be it further
Resolved: 
That the Academic Senate of SF State affirm our commitment to supporting social justice epistemologies and pedagogies that prepare our students for a twenty-first century existence in which they speak truth to power and take active roles in their educational experiences.