A Message from President Virjee

Dear Titan Family:

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) have always been — and must always be — the bedrock of our commitment to upholding and enhancing a just and welcoming environment; a place where rich academic and co-curricular experiences are equitable for all students and inclusive work settings are bountiful for all faculty and staff. There are many ways to measure our success in this ongoing and endless work, and often — too often perhaps — we point to rising graduation rates, shrinking equity gaps, shifting demographic pie charts, and ascending national rankings.

Such achievements are well earned and worthy of our attention, to be sure, but let us be clear: those metrics lose their luster considerably — if not completely — if the faculty, staff, and students behind them are not experiencing a welcoming, equitable, and inclusive campus climate at every step of their Titan journey.

We, like all communities, have our challenges in this arena. Indeed, never in our 63-year history could we lay claim to a campus climate in which all Titans have been free from the pain of marginalization, the erasure of unacknowledged privilege, or the injustice of hateful rhetoric. Add to this the undeniable and disturbing fact that, over the past few years, we have witnessed an increase in divisive behavior around our nation. Tragically, these hateful words and actions have emboldened some in our own community who fear our diversity and the tenets of equity and inclusion we strive to uphold.

Such misguided fear and misdirected hate cannot and will not be sustained on our campus; instead, it will be challenged and confronted with messages and actions of inclusion, collaboration, and community. And there is no better way to jump start this endeavor than to seek out, listen to, and engage with the Titans bearing the brunt of these injustices – faculty, staff, and students who are disproportionally impacted by our nation’s inequities and the xenophobia and racism that too often make them systemic. These voices are as important as they are courageous, and in recent months, their message has significantly bolstered our Strategic Plan objectives that aim to better infuse equity-minded and inclusive-based practices in all that we do.

This website, Titans Together: Our Commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, is an amalgamation of that progress and CSUF’s DEI efforts and initiatives  — past, present, and future — that underscore our collective and ongoing commitment to transparency and accountability toward improving our campus climate.

This is a living site, to be sure. It is a timely and necessary body of work that will continually evolve, and I encourage you not only to review it often, but also to share its themes in our classrooms, around our community and, above all, through your words and actions.

We at CSUF have always stood on the right side of history, but it is time now to stand taller, speak louder, and work stronger as colleagues, as friends, as educators – and of course, as Titans Together.

Sincerely,

Fram Virjee
President