SACRAMENTO, Calif. ? Students and faculty members demonstrated in support of an American Indian instructor at Sacramento City College who claims she and her classes are being unfairly discriminated against by school administration.
The Oct 10 really is part of a yearlong controversy over creation of an ethnic studies department during which several vocal students and faculty members claim American Indian- and Chicano-related classes are being relegated to second-class status.
About 20 students and faculty members showed up at the Tree of Peace at nearby California State University, Sacramento in support of instructor Yolanda Tauzer, an Eastern Cherokee. The group planned to march up Howe Avenue, a major Sacramento thoroughfare, to the headquarters of the Los Rios Community College to demand that the school hold American Indian and Chicano studies classes at the central campus.
Sacramento City College is trying to move these classes to one of its community outreach centers in nearby Davis for the spring semester, while not offering these same classes at the central campus. Tauzer and fellow teacher Professor Sam Rios, a Chicano studies professor, say the college is trying to do this as retaliation for their outspoken and visible support for an ethnic studies department.
The instructors claim they are being singled out because they would oppose any department head who would be a puppet of the administration. They say they made an agreement with the administration to create an ethnic studies department under their terms which include having ethnically specific instructors teaching classes of those respective ethnicities.
Tauzer provided a letter to Indian Country Today that outlines the goals of a new ethnic studies department and is signed by the president of the faculty senate. She claims the school is reneging and twisting certain provisions for its own purposes.
‘Indians are used to broken treaties,’ Tauzer said.
Cari Forbes-Boyte, the dean of the school of Behavioral and Social Sciences, dismisses Tauzer’s claims. She says the school is proceeding ahead to establish an ethnic studies department and that the reason for certain slowdowns is that students have not been asked for input. She insists the school is not reneging nor dragging its heels in creating the department.
Forbes-Boyte said a petition is being circulated to gather student opinion.
She described Tauzer and Rios as good instructors and said they are very ‘passionate ‘ about their subjects.
‘It is this passion that makes them great instructors, and in this passion sometimes it makes it difficult to see the other point of view.’
Further complicating matters is a charge that Tauzer and Rios were complicit in writing a hateful message to a fellow instructor critical of Tauzer’s actions at a college meeting. Rios and Tauzer vehemently deny the charge.
The problems began last year when a student in Tauzer’s class told her that her American Indian history class would not be offered the following semester. Tauzer claims she was not informed by the administration and she was ‘humiliated’ to find this out during a class.
Tauzer was offered another class by the college and made a push to get the American Indian history class taught. She says the administration had told her the reason her class was not offered was low enrollment and she added that she has 30 students in her class.
Forbes-Boyte said the American Indian history class is enjoying such high enrollment because it is offered only once a year, thus doubling the normal number of students who would take the class if it were offered on a single semester basis. She claims that in the past four semesters, the class had only sparse enrollment and it was a common sense, cost-cutting decision to cut the class to only once a year.
Tauzer counters saying she and some of her supporters took time to aggressively promote the class, something she says the college has not done and employed the services of sympathetic guidance counselors.
This semester, the issue has become more contentious as the college tries to set up the ethnic studies department. The alleged hateful letter stems from a meeting when a group of Tauzer’s supporters, mainly disabled students, were asked to leave. When they refused, the meeting was called off and a small but ‘fairly civil’ exchange of words occurred between Tauzer and a fellow instructor.
The other instructor received a letter making slurs against his ethnicity and sexual orientation. The administration and the instructor will say only that campus police are investigating.
It was during this time that Tauzer and Rios were told they would have to offer their classes at the Davis satellite campus next semester. Rios said this is especially puzzling when one looks at the demographics of the area.
Davis, a smallish university town about 15 miles west of Sacramento, is a largely white and affluent, whereas Sacramento is a large and diverse city of 400,000 people and has significant Mexican-American and American Indian populations. Rios said he wonders why the college would move these classes to this location.
‘It’s puzzling to me that they would choose the Native American and Chicano studies classes to send out to Davis, after Yolanda and I have been so critical of the administration. They’re not sending the African-American or Asian studies classes to Davis,’ Rios said.
Sacramento City College student and Miwok tribal member Jacqueline Smith said she needs these classes for entry in California State University, Sacramento’s ethnic studies program. Sacramento City College is a two-year institution and many local students save money by taking preliminary courses there.
Smith, a single mother of five, says it is not an option for her to go all the way to Davis to take these classes. She is thinking of relocating to Davis just so she can take these classes.
‘Then I would have to move back to Sacramento when I get in Sac State,’ Smith said.
Non-Indian students Jeanie Moore and Eline Slye attended the demonstration. They said they see this as a systematic case of discrimination and that the Sacramento City College administration had promised to consult with Tauzer and Rios before setting up the department, something they say the college has now refused to do.
‘The bottom line is that shipping these classes off to the Davis satellite campus is ridiculous and it takes away a vital academic element for our campus. Seriously, going to Davis is just not a realistic option,’ Moore said.
For now Tauzer and Rios said they will fight to preserve their classes and to keep themselves as integral players in the ethnic studies process. After the demonstration they took their demands to the chancellor of the Los Rios College District, the governing board of Sacramento City and several other local junior colleges. The chancellor was not in his offices.
