A Moment with President Tomás Morales – October 2023
CSUSB is celebrating our vibrant, diverse campus this fall with some exciting events.
The first celebration is Hispanic Heritage Month, which runs from September 15 – October 15 each year. The objective of HHM is to provide the CSUSB community students with the chance to explore and become immersed in Hispanic and Latinx culture via different points of reference.
CSUSB’s programming is rich with a variety of educational, teaching and artistic events and opportunities. The 2023 kickoff began with the AfroLatinX Carnival on Coyote Walk, which brought students, faculty and staff together to celebrate Afrolatiné culture and community through art, live music and entertainment, along with food and resources from the university and the community.
CSUSB’s internationally recognized Latino Education and Advocacy Days also chose HHM to hold their annual conference. The theme was “¡Ya Basta! – Enough is Enough!: Education and Violence in the Context of our Schools, Community Safety, and Law-Enforcement.” This year’s honorary chairs – Dolores Huerta, president and founder of the Dolores Huerta Foundation, along with actor Emilio Rivera – delivered keynote addresses at the summit.
One opportunity in particular I would like to invite you to visit is the new “Afróntalo” exhibit at the Anthropology Museum (SBS-306) and the adjacent ground-level plaza. It focuses on the African ancestry shared by 25% of Latinos. It will be open through June 19, 2024.
The fall is also a time where we celebrate the cultures and histories of the First Peoples of our region. At CSUSB, we are keenly aware that the land on which each of our campuses sits was neither vacant nor empty before we began our operations. Rather, it was a part of the territories of the Indigenous Peoples of the Inland Empire and Coachella Valley, respectively.
We therefore recognize Indigenous People’s Day on the second Monday of October each year. This date of recognition was established by the White House in 2021 with the words, “On Indigenous Peoples’ Day, our Nation celebrates the invaluable contributions and resilience of Indigenous peoples, recognizes their inherent sovereignty, and commits to honoring the Federal Government’s trust and treaty obligations to Tribal Nations.”
The San Bernardino Campus was happy to welcome back to campus the 3-day San Manuel Band of Mission Indians Pow Wow on September 15-17, 2023. It was a richly dynamic gathering, including traditional dancing and bird songs, and featuring Indian tribal nations from across the United States and Canada.
Our university remains committed to our partnerships with the tribal nations in our region, in promoting access to higher education for Indigenous peoples, and in creating and providing the support mechanisms to assist our Indigenous students with reaching their academic goals. We also remain incredibly grateful to the San Manuel Band for their ongoing support of CSUSB over these many years, an appreciation which is reflected in the campus’ physical infrastructure itself.
I am proud to have been appointed as the California State University Presidential Advisor to the chancellor and Board of Trustees for Native American Initiatives. One of my priorities will be to complete the repatriation to California’s tribes of the remains of Native Americans and along with artifacts that are currently held by CSU campuses. Please know that CSUSB does not possess any First People’s human remains and that we have been, and are continuing, to work with the tribes in our area regarding returning any artifacts that we have in our possession.
There is always something happening on campus at CSUSB. As a higher education community, we are proud to be able to provide our students with access to curricular and co-curricular activities to enrich the education which each student receives as a member of the Coyote Pack.
Until next time—