Friday Nov. 11, 2016

Since its inception, the CSUMB community has consisted of students, faculty, and staff committed to inclusiveness, empathy, and diversity. Our founding vision statement captures this well when it describes us as “…a model pluralistic academic community where all learn and teach one another in an atmosphere of mutual respect and pursuit of excellence.” Our campus has never wavered from this vision, and we continue to live and be guided by it today.

In this context, the results of the presidential election and the campaign leading up to it have been very distressing to many in our community. The level of vitriol and personal attacks during the campaign were unprecedented in recent memory, and the outcome was all the more stunning for being unexpected. In particular, the disparaging remarks towards women, members of the LGBT community, and ethnic and religious minority groups have generated real fear among some members of our campus community.

I am writing to reassure you that our university—and the entire CSU—remain unwavering in our commitment to the values that are fundamental to our institution. All human beings are valued regardless of differences; reasoned, respectful discussion and debate in the search for truth are our touchstones. We are here to provide a positive, transformational learning experience for all of our students. Their success and their flourishing is our shared goal. Acts of hate and bigotry, should they surface, will not be tolerated.

Notwithstanding all this, national developments are momentous, will have uncertain consequences, and many of us feel a need to meet and discuss their implications. I understand our students are planning an event on Monday evening to do this. I will not be able to attend, as I will be at the CSU Board of Trustees meeting, where I am sure some of these issues will be discussed. However, we will hold a University Forum upon my return, on Thursday, November 17, from 2 to 4 pm, at the University Center Ballroom to meet and discuss these issues further. All University community members—students, faculty, and staff—are invited to attend.

It is also important to note that there were some positive aspects to this election. While one-half of the country may be despondent, the other half is feeling good about the outcome. In spite of fears among some quarters preceding the event, the United States once again held clean, peaceful, orderly, uncontested elections. The peaceful transfer of power is once again taking place, a testament to the fact that our institutions of governance remain sturdy. And the candidate elected by one-half of Americans will soon be the President of all Americans. It will be up to all of us to encourage him to live up to that charge, and to insure that he remains faithful to the solemn oath he will take on January 20: to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.