Photo by Nova Blanco-Rico.
By Destiny Torres and Yeymy Garcia, Staff Editors
The future may be uncertain for California State University, Dominguez Hills, and the next semester, but the Latinx center is still confirmed to be coming this fall.
On March 3, about 50 students, faculty, and alumni gathered to share El Comité’s, a group of students that formed to help create a Latinx Center on campus, proposal with Vice President of Student Affairs William Franklin.
The proposal outlined El Comité’s demands and expectations for the resource center they hope will be in the Science and Innovation Building in fall 2020. Franklin was impressed with the proposal’s organization and content and said he would be working closely with El Comité to bring the center to this fall.
With COVID-19 prompting the closure of CSUDH, these plans have not been delayed.
“Conversations and plans are still underway for the center coming,” said Franklin. “We are still in touch [with El Comité] and the plan is to still launch in the fall.”
El Comite member Janneth Najera, a Chicano/a studies major, confirmed this.
“I am hoping ASI can fund a student Comité for the summer so we can start programs for our incoming Latinx freshmen and transfer class,” Najera said.
Discussions of opening a Latinx center at CSUDH have been occurring for at least five years even though our Latinx student body is 60.3 percent, the second-largest percentage of the California State Universities.
A group of students formed El Comité to start holding discussions about what it would take to get the construction of an affinity center started and met with Franklin on March 3. About 50 students, faculty, and alumni gathered to share El Comité’s proposal with Franklin. Students shared personal experiences about how they felt like they did not have a place to call home on campus and could have left their education without the support of Latinx professors.
“I can’t remember how many times I’ve wanted to drop out…I think of those students who I came in with…who are no longer here because they couldn’t find community,” one student said.
Read more about the efforts in part one and part two at csudhbulletin.com.
