Courtesy photo.
CAMARILLO — CSU Channel Islands (CSUCI) welcomed its largest freshman class ever last fall and anticipates the Class of 2018 will also be the largest to date.
As the campus continues to grow, the student demographic is also changing, becoming more diverse with each passing year. To ensure the faculty continues to reflect the diversity of the students, the CSU Office of the Chancellor awarded the CSUCI Inclusive Excellence Task Force a $200,000 grant to help seek out, recruit and maintain a diverse faculty.
“The student population we have now is very different than what we had years ago,” said Professor of Chicana/o Studies Jose Alamillo, Ph.D., who chairs the 11-person task force. “The largest growth we see is with Latina/o students. With that student demographic shift, we need to prepare with a more diverse faculty.”
Forming in November under the direction of President Erika D. Beck, the task force is comprised of six faculty members, two administrators, one staff member and one student. The team plans to revisit the faculty hiring process and come up with different strategies to attract quality educators from a pool of candidates generally underrepresented on university faculties including racial minorities, Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBT) faculty and women in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).
Another aspect of the project is to familiarize potential job candidates with CSUCI.
“We’re going to have ambassador groups of faculty who can attend recruitment fairs, conferences and really showcase our campus and who we are,” Alamillo said, then joked: “And that we’re not actually out on an island.”
Alamillo said the task force will also connect with other campuses for information and potential job candidates.
“We need to visit other universities that graduate exceptional graduate students who can be future faculty,” Alamillo said.
The reason faculty diversity is important is because it enhances the learning experience and better prepares graduates for a global, multilingual, multicultural job market.
“A diverse faculty can train students to be culturally competent, which describes someone who knows how to approach a diverse population,” Alamillo said. “They can open up a student’s eyes and allow them to see the world differently, or find new ways to approach problems.”
Alamillo said the task force plans to work with CSUCI’s Unity Coalition of Faculty & Staff Associations, which includes the Black Faculty and Staff Association (BFSA); Chicano/Latina/o Faculty and Staff Association (CHILFASA); and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer Faculty and Staff Association (LGBTQ+).
About California State University Channel Islands: CSU Channel Islands (CSUCI) is the only four-year, public university in Ventura County and is known for its interdisciplinary, multicultural and international perspectives, and its emphasis on experiential and service learning. CSUCI’s strong academic programs focus on business, sciences, liberal studies, teaching credentials, and innovative master’s degrees. Students benefit from individual attention, up-to-date technology, and classroom instruction augmented by outstanding faculty research. CSUCI has been designated by the U.S. Department of Education as a Hispanic-Serving Institution and is committed to serving students of all backgrounds from the region and beyond. Connect with and learn more by visiting CSUCI’s Social Media.