By Sydney Schabacker

Senior Staff Writer

A Resolution in Support of the “Black Lives Matter” Movement was approved on Feb. 11, 2015 by CSUSM’s Chapter Executive Board for California Faculty Association (CFA).

The #BlackLivesMatter movement was spurred in 2012 following the death of Trayvon Martin, and seeks to spark conversations and spread awareness of how blacks are often left powerless at the hands of the state and deprived of legal rights.

CSUSM’s Chapter of the CFA adopted this resolution in order to bring attention to some disturbing trends in society. These trends include people of color allegedly being unjustly profiled, harassed and even killed by white police officers.  The CFA supports the ideals of equal justice under law, human dignity and racial justice for all students.

This resolution is CSUSM’s way of showing its students that the campus faculty supports these ideals and recognizes the seriousness of racial injustices and issues.  In addition, these resolutions are intended to increase an awareness of these trends among our staff and faculty members.

“It is the hope of the Board of the CSUSM Chapter of CFA that this resolution, and the Black Lives Matter movement that inspired it, will raise awareness of a serious problem in our country,” said Darel Engen, President of the CSUSM chapter of CFA. “Once there is awareness, action can follow, and students need to be aware before they can act to stand up and demand reform of unjust practices that have violated the rights and endangered the lives of young people.”

The resolution was written to inspire the university and to empower students, staff and faculty in the concept of social justice in their learning environments.  This resolution also reaches out to CSUSM University Police to participate with faculty in supporting all of the campus community.

“I have seen our society make great strides during my lifetime to make these ideals [of justice] real in our everyday lives,” Engen said. “However, it is also clear to me that we still have a lot of work to do.”

This resolution is only one part of an ongoing effort to oversee beneficial changes at CSUSM.  Everyone can help perpetuate these changes.  CSUSM is a proudly diverse community, and together, it is possible to uphold diversity with social justice.