Dear Supporter,

Yesterday we were grateful to have Dr. Mark Sanchez Superintendent/President of Southwestern College, Vice President for Academic Affairs Minou Spradley, and the Dean of School of Arts, Communications, and Social Science, and faculty from the History Department.  We presented our hearts, our minds, and our concerns shared by the 19,000 students that are Chicano Latino on campus.  We wish we could say we left the meeting feeling understood or offered more than chicken scraps.

The decision-makers in the room did pledge to develop more courses about Chicanos and Latinos, but did not offer a plan. Nor did they acknowledge the need to hire discipline experts to write these courses.  They asked us to have faith in their processes; the very same processes that have created this unjust situation and forced us as students to invest countless hours across two semesters to seek change because processes aren't working, at least not for the students.  We want the college to take our 10-point plan seriously. 

The history of Mexican Americans and Latinos in the U.S. Southwest is housed in the discipline of Chicana and Chicano Studies.  Our college has abused the use of minimum equivalency on our community for too long.  This would never be acceptable in any other department at any institution of higher ed, so why us?

The College keeps taking our tuition dollars but keeps skimming us out of a truly culturally inclusive and culturally relevant experience on campus.  Public accountability means taking action to ensure the college invests in a program we actually want, one that reflects our values and not just that of currrent faculty.  The college has no full-time or tenure faculty dedicated to Chicana and Chicano Studies who can mentor us and develop a department that can understand us, not just serve us.  Even after being the majority for 30 years, we don't have experts in Chicana and Chicano Studies on campus.  We've waited 60 years.   How much longer must we wait?

Students deserve more from their community college and our group relies on your on-going support.  We will be presenting our plan to the Governing Board of Southwestern College.  This meeting will be open to the public.  Continue to share this petition.  Every signature counts.

In Solidarity,

MEChA, Southwestern College
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