OPEN LETTER

CI faculty reaffirm our shared values

The mission of CSU Channel Islands explicitly values a student experience emphasizing interdisciplinarity, experiential and service learning, multiculturalism, and internationalism. Taken together, these ideals foreground CI’s commitment to creating an ever-broadening community of perspectives. When students learn in this environment, they become stronger thinkers, energetic creators, and engaged citizens.

We, the undersigned faculty of Cal State Channel Islands note that the president-elect has expressed and espoused points of view and political positions that are objectively racist, misogynist, bigoted, anti-intellectual, and anti-science. The degree to which this election indicates an acceptance of these damaging beliefs by a growing segment of society, or increased frustration with a government that has failed to adequately address the needs of all people, remains to be seen. In response, however, the faculty of the University is compelled to publicly declare the shared principles and goals of CI's community of teachers and scholars. The president-elect's embrace of ignorance, discrimination, fear, and hatred not only revisits some of the darkest episodes of human history, but is at odds with everything that universities represent.

In our teaching, in our research, and in all our interactions with students and each other, CI faculty use critical analysis and evidence-based reasoning as tools for a deeper understanding of our world. Though our work encompasses a wide range of disciplines and questions, the shared values of the University help maintain society’s robust understanding of the common good.

The undersigned faculty of CI stand together to protect our shared convictions and mission through deliberate action. We believe we must live our shared values:

• Our teaching will always explicitly reject the rhetoric of exclusion, and will focus instead on dialog that respects difference and seeks understanding.
• We will fight the normalization of evidence-free social discourse by modelling for our students and communities the power of evidence-based open inquiry in real problem solving.
• Our interactions with our communities will always highlight the connections between inclusive, reasoned dialog and a strengthened social fabric.
• We will actively serve our students and their families, the campus, and the people of the Southern California as public intellectuals, seeking out extra-curricular opportunities to promote the importance of learning for its own sake and for the public good.