Dear Campus Community,
The undersigned faculty of the Social Sciences Department would like to express their outrage at the despicable acts of intolerance, discrimination, and racism at the Crop House. We stand together as a coalition against acts of hate that have occurred far too often on this campus. The advancement of any great university is contingent on its ability to retain the best students and faculty, and embracing diversity is essential to achieving that goal. For many of us who work tirelessly to increase diversity on campus, we see these acts of hate as tremendously damaging to our efforts to create a comfortable learning environment for all students. We know others stand with us and we call upon those at Cal Poly and the community to join us in creating a more accepting, appreciative, and tolerant society that respects ethnicity, gender, language, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and difference. While we cannot undo the negativity caused by these actions, it is up to the university to heal the damage through swift, strong, and immediate action. We are deeply concerned that the actions taken so far and public statements made to date do not reflect sufficient recognition of the repulsiveness of these acts and the damage that they have done to our community. We call on President Baker, Dean Wehner, and the faculty of the Horticulture and Crop Science Department, who have publically stated condemnation of these acts, to take action that demonstrates leadership and accountability, and also moves the Cal Poly community toward a positive and unified stance on diversity.
Social science department faculty: Jennifer Becker, Christopher Bickel, Gregory Bohr, James Coleman, Barbara Cook, Terry L. Jones, Harold Kerbo, Patrick McKim, John McKinstry, Barbara Mori, Karen L. Moro, Dawn Neill, William Preston, Stacey Rucas, Meg Streiff, Benjamin F. Timms