CSU Faculty to Rally Against CSU LA President, Trustees as Sexual Violence, White Supremacy Culture Plagues CSU System

SACRAMENTO – Members of the California Faculty Association (CFA) will rally in-person outside the Board of Trustees meeting today, coming days after two key no confidence votes against CSU Los Angeles president William Covino and the Board of Trustees.

The rally begins at 10:00 a.m. at 401 Golden Shore in Long Beach.

Last week, CSU LA faculty took their first steps to seek removal of Covino, after the targeted and brutal removal of esteemed campus and community leader, Dr. Melina Abdullah, from a campus event by armed university police officers. On Tuesday, faculty will call on Trustees to fire him and start changing the culture of anti-Black racism at CSU LA and throughout the CSU system.

Additionally, the Academic Senate of the California State University (ASCSU) took an unprecedented vote of no confidence in the Board of Trustees. Faculty lost trust in this current iteration of the Board due to its incompetence, impunity, and inability to address Title IX violations and broader cases of discrimination, harassment, and/or retaliation.

It’s long past time for Trustees to hold themselves accountable. Faculty will call on the Board to immediately act on a plethora of issues relating to the white supremacist culture plaguing the CSU system.

CFA members sent a letter to the Board that outlines the ways in which the system has failed survivors of sexual violence across the CSU and has failed students, staff, and faculty experiencing daily structural violence because of the system’s anti-Blackness and white supremacy culture.

In order to address these interconnected systemic problems, CFA members are demanding that Trustees enact the following reforms:

• Open Searches for all administrative positions at the CSU
• Cessation of Retreat Rights for executive managers
• An overhaul of Title IX processes and enforcement that respects survivor agency and healing
• A dedicated funding stream to create and sustain womxn’s resource centers on campuses in order to foster a place of healing and empowerment for survivors
• Urgency and action to seat the taskforce for alternatives to campus police
• A willingness to work with CFA on our demands in Our Way Forward to address anti-Black racism, anti-Asian hate, and systemic oppressions

The rally will feature multiple CFA member speakers and faculty, students, and supporters with signs and noisemakers. Additional groups attending CFA’s rally in solidary include Black Lives Matter-LA, NAACP, Students Deserve, and Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE). Participants are heavily encouraged to attend only if they’ve been vaccinated, and if they wear facemasks and socially distance at all times.

ABOUT THE CALIFORNIA FACULTY ASSOCIATION: CFA represents more than 29,000 tenure-line instructional faculty, lecturers, librarians, counselors, and coaches on the 23 campuses of the California State University system, from Humboldt State in the north, to San Diego State in the south. Learn more about CFA at calfac.org and visit our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages.