When votes came in a few weeks ago for new student senators at
California State University Northridge (CSUN), most of the winners were
students of color. While that shouldn’t seem unusual for a multi-ethnic
campus where minorities constitute 62 percent of the 27,000 students,
it was a noteworthy departure from past elections.
True, previous student body presidents at CSUN have included people
of color. But historically, these leaders have been surrounded by
cabinet members and senators who have been White. The 1998 governing
body is the first at CSUN to dramatically deviate from that model.
The CSUN experience is exemplary of what students across the
country are learning about the power and pain of using multicultural
political coalitions as the nation’s urban and suburban campuses become
more diverse.
CSUN sits in the heart of Lost Angeles’s San Fernando Valley. Its
president, Dr. Blenda J. Wilson, is one of four African Americans to
head a Cal State institution. Some say recent campus elections for the
Associate Students at CSUN mirror the region’s demographic shift in
real-world politics, particularly with the growing number of Latino
voters and activists in Los Angeles. Recent estimates reveal that
CSUN’s student body is 38 percent White, 22 percent Latino, 14 percent
Asian American and Pacific Islander, and 8 percent African American.
“Racial politics definitely has its place in certain settings,”
says student body president Joaquin Macias, who describes himself as
both Black and Chicano. “If you are underrepresented in the government
that is dictating social policies [and elected officials] are ignoring
the cultural implications in the community, that is a problem.”
Macias is used to talking about race and politics. Under his
leadership, the school is experiencing its first academic year governed
by an all-minority Associated Students (A.S.) cabinet. But the election
of his administration did not come easily.
Last spring, incumbents and challengers, the latter of whom were
led by Macias, became embroiled in five weeks of name-calling and
accusations of voter fraud. The verbal assaults escalated racial
tensions on campus, pitting students, faculty, and administrations
against each other. A student council advisor later commercial it was
the most rancorous and draining conflict in his thirteen years on
campus.
