LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) – Close to 400 faculty members at the University of Southern California signed a letter calling for school administrators to do a better job addressing issues of systematic racism on campus.
The letter was sent Wednesday to President Carol Folt, Provost Charles Zukoski, Academic Senate President Paul Adler and Board of Trustees Chairman Rick Caruso.
FILE — A student at USC on March 11, 2020. (Getty Images)
According to The Daily Trojan student newspaper, the 382 faculty members who signed onto the letter said they appreciate Folt’s “communication with the university community,” but that her proposals “fall dramatically short of what is needed at USC.”
The letter also mentioned the Instagram page Black_at_USC, where Black students have been describing their experiences at the school.
“We have read hundreds of moving testimonies from our students and staff members on the Black_at_USC Instagram account about their experience of racism on campus,” the letter read, critiquing Folt’s initiative to survey students about such experiences. “Our students do not need to further educate us on their experience; they need our active support through material change to USC’s campus structures and culture.”
“Other peer institutions such as UCLA and Stanford have announced much more robust actions and plans for change,” the letter said.
The letter also calls on USC to create an institutional space for Black studies, called the Black Studies Center, in line with similar initiatives at Stanford and UCLA.
The center would create graduate and undergraduate fellowships and programs focused on the study of African American and African culture, societies and politics.
The letter went on to urge school officials to create a better plan to combat racism, get rid of sources harmful to Black students and staff and create an equal experience for any underrepresented student groups.
The faculty group also called for USC to cut the Department of Public Safety’s $49 million budget by 25% and redirect that money to help underrepresented students and community members feel safer on campus.
In late June, Folt announced in a letter to the Trojan community the university would take a series of actions in an effort to dismantle anti-Black racism at the school, including holding focus group interviews with Black students, faculty, staff and alumni over a four-month period, seeking “to hear more about racialized experiences from Black members of the Trojan Family.”
“We will see their findings and recommendations by mid-fall semester,” Folt wrote.
(© Copyright 2020 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. City News Service contributed to this report.)
