Community Studies Suspended

April 8, 2010

The Community Studies Department faculty and staff can confirm that we learned of the administration and Academic Senate's decision to suspend admissions to our undergraduate major at the same time that the rest of the campus did. This is not an unexpected decision, but it is a very sad one. The Community Studies Department has roots back to the early days of this university and a devoted following among students, alumni, and community organizations. Indeed, one of our alumna is receiving this year's Distinguished Alumnus award. The department has been harmed by too many successive years of defunding on the part of the administration, from the elimination of key staff positions to the refusal to allow departing faculty's lines to be rehired. The reduction of resources predated the economic crisis in which we now find ourselves -- with the faculty halved, staff lines withdrawn, and a department under siege. No, we could not find a solution this time: nobody can run a department without adequate faculty and staff. We are committed to seeing our students graduate and want to assure all declared Community Studies majors that they are guaranteed their pathway through the major, as are many of the students who've expressed an intention to declare the major by taking other Community Studies classes. We invite all those on campus interested in social justice and community-based research in an immersive-educative context to use the next two years to envision a future program that can engage our students and magnetize the hunger for educative action at UCSC. [Please note that this decision does not effect the continuation of the department's M.A. program, the Social Documentation graduate program, which is currently admitting a new class and is not being suspended.] Professor B. Ruby Rich, Chair on behalf of the Community Studies Department