CSUF’s Guiding Principles for Social Justice — Striving for Justice, Equity and Inclusion
California State University, Fullerton is committed to providing an inclusive, transformational, just, and equitable educational experience for all members of our Titan community.
- By inclusive we mean every individual or group is welcomed, respected, supported, and valued to fully participate.
- By transformational we mean the purveyance of ideas, thoughts, and experiences that empower students to see themselves and their future anew.
- By just we mean equipping students with the tools to both recognize systemic inequities and support our mission to eradicate them.
- By equitable we mean fair treatment, access, opportunity, and advancement for all Titans while eliminating barriers that have prevented full participation and success for historically underrepresented communities.
With this document and as a community, we name our primary goal is to provide accessible learning experiences through which students, as well as faculty and staff, are empowered to reach their fullest potential. That charge cannot be achieved when anyone in the Titan Family experiences marginalization, systemic racism, or any form or discrimination, or when our structures reinforce inherited exclusions and privilege.
This past year has exposed raw layers of injustice; systemic inequities, biases, and racism that are the lived and daily experiences of too many of our colleagues and students. As a nation, we have been fully awakened to anti-Blackness in our society — from police violence and attacks on peaceful protestors, to a white nationalist insurrection in our Capitol. This occurred during a global pandemic that not only disproportionately affected the health of Black and Brown communities, but also triggered anti-Asian hate and violence. Such incidents insist that we intensify and accelerate our efforts to dismantle structural oppression and interrupt patterns of individual and collective behavior in and around our nation. First, however, we must complete this work at home.
To be an actively inclusive, equitable, and anti-racist campus, we must engage in transformative intersectional work with, among and between the various communities that are consistently relegated to the margins of our society. We cannot separate the conversation between racial justice and justice for all marginalized groups when the oppression and liberation are interconnected. Instead, we must step back, examine, and discuss the historic parallels of racial justice and other human rights movements, such as the immigration and LGBTQ+ movements.
With this document and the actionable goals it puts forth, the leadership of Cal State Fullerton aims to amplify our denouncement of all hateful legacies and actions that pit us against each other or that would create a society that perpetuates bias or minimizes our inherent value as human beings. Moreover, this document and its content signal our commitment to more fully acknowledge and recognize systems of racism and injustice that we inherited and which will remain embedded in our campus culture if we are not intentional in our daily efforts to eradicate them.
We have been at this work for many years, and our recent renewed commitment across campus has manifested significant progress. It is time now, however, to say this together as the Titan community: This is the work that chief among all goals we seek to achieve. It is also work for which we want to be held accountable.
To that end, we have identified six areas that are most critical to nurture, strengthen and
ultimately embed anti-racist and non-discriminatory behaviors and structures within the core of the Titan experience. We are currently devoting time and resources to each of them, and we will continue to do so. Links at the end provide descriptions of specific projects underway, timelines and goals, as well as instructions on how to stay updated on our progress.
- Enhance Equitable Learning – Create a campus community that is committed to the
achievement of equitable outcomes for all students, with particular emphasis on assessing and incentivizing the closure of opportunity gaps for students from historically racially
marginalized groups. Ensure faculty have the requisite tools and skills to facilitate equitable learning. - Expand Intentional Outreach – Redouble efforts across the institution to successfully
recruit, retain, and graduate students from underserved communities, with a specific
emphasis on Black/African American and Native American/Indigenous Titans. - Amplify Our HSI Designation & Radiate an Identity of Inclusion – Ensure our identity as a multiethnic, multiracial, and multicultural institution that is committed to a future free of
racism and bias is clearly articulated and visible to everyone — internally and externally. This includes our designation as a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) and our eligibility for
designation as an Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institution (AANAPISI). - Build a Professoriate-to-Leadership Pipeline – Increase the number of individuals from
historically underrepresented racial and ethnic communities in our faculty ranks, and create a supportive pipeline for those who seek administrative futures. Continue to enhance efforts to further diversify all of the institution’s educators, including staff. - Recognize History and Catalyze Change – Instill in all Titans — especially those in formal leadership roles — the ability to not only recognize and call out structural racism and bias, but also drive real, sustainable, systemic change at all levels of our campus community.
- Create an Antiracist Community – Embed and implement principles of antiracism, diversity, equity, and inclusion in all that we do.
