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  • Faculty, staff urge California colleges to make backup plans in case DACA ends

    Faculty, staff urge California colleges to make backup plans in case DACA ends


    Madeleine Villanueva, higher education manager of Immigrants Rising and Maria Barragan, director of undocumented student support services at Loyola Marymount University.

    Credit: Courtesy of Immigrants Rising

    Iveth Díaz has spent much of her career helping immigrant students living in the U.S. without permanent legal status navigate college. But when her own application to renew her work permit and temporary protection from deportation was delayed because of backlogs, she had to resign from her job for three months.

    “It was extremely stressful. It was a time when I suffered from anxiety and depression, which is unfortunately very common within our community,” Díaz said. 

    Díaz and other college and university employees with work permits and protection under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program are calling on universities to do more to help them prepare for alternative employment plans in case the program ends. Some proposals include helping employees become independent consultants, preparing a severance package or sponsoring work visas.

    DACA offers temporary protection from deportation and permission to work for about 579,000 young people who were brought to the U.S. as children and graduated from high school, completed a GED or are veterans of the U.S. military. Every two years, recipients must apply for renewal. But the program could end at any time. It was found to be illegal by a federal judge in Texas, and that case will likely end up in the Supreme Court.

    The program, launched during the Obama administration, has long been associated with high school and college students, but most recipients are now working adults. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has not accepted new applications since 2017, making the youngest DACA recipients currently 21 years old, and the oldest, now 42.

    “The DACA generation are not kids anymore,” said Madeleine Villanueva, higher education manager of Immigrants Rising, an organization based in San Francisco that helps undocumented people achieve career and educational goals and published a guide for colleges and universities to support undocumented employees. “A lot of us are in our 30s and 40s. We’re doing this work so that the future generation of undocumented students doesn’t have such a hard time like we did when we were going to school.”

    Hundreds of faculty and staff at California colleges and universities are DACA recipients, although the exact total is unclear. According to the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration’s Higher Ed Immigration Portal,  there are about 9,211 recipients working in education in California, from elementary school to college. The University of California estimates it has more than 400 employee recipients, some of them students. Spokespersons for the California State University and California Community Colleges said they did not have data on how many employees are temporarily protected from deportation.

    Díaz worked for more than eight years at CSU San Bernardino as an administrative support coordinator for graduate researchers and as an admissions counselor. She now leads a program for students at Cerritos College who do not have permanent legal immigration status. As a fellow at Immigrants Rising, she conducted a survey of about 65 employees of California colleges and universities who at one time were living in the U.S. without permission, most of whom now have DACA protections. The employees included faculty, counselors, researchers and financial aid and admissions workers.

    She said most respondents said their colleges and universities have not prepared for what to do for their employees if the program ends.

    “Are we waiting until the program is canceled altogether, or are institutions being proactive in creating ways to retain their employees?” Díaz said. “I found that 70% of respondents stated that their institutions have not even brought it up, have not even had a conversation to their knowledge about what a response plan would be, which is really worrisome.”

    Laura Bohórquez García, the director of the AB 540 and Undocumented Student Center at UC Davis, decided to start her own business, Inner Work Collective Freedom, to employ herself if the program ends and she loses her work permit.

    “I’m like, OK, how do I prepare? Because I don’t feel like the university would be ready to jump in,” Bohórquez García said.

    In addition to plans in case DACA ends, concerned university employees and advocates recommended that universities offer more mental health benefits and that supervisors check in on their employees’ mental health. 

    “You have to check in with the students, but sometimes no one is checking in with you. How can we help others if we can’t even advocate for ourselves?”

    Eric Yang

    Many recipients working in colleges and universities are employed in positions dedicated to supporting immigrant students on their campuses, helping them get legal services or mental health counseling. But many of these positions are part-time and don’t offer health benefits, which are crucial when living with the uncertainty of losing temporary protection from deportation, advocates said.

    “So much of what they’re doing and the fires they’re turning off when it comes to students, it impacts them as well,” said Luz Bertadillo Rodríguez, director of campus engagement at the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, a group of college and university leaders dedicated to increasing public understanding of how immigration policies and practices impact students. “The constant word or feeling I hear when there’s a new DACA update is, ‘I’m exhausted.’ They’re just like, ‘I’m tired of living my life two years at a time and then even that not being certain.’”

    Whenever a new court decision comes out about the program, employees in the immigrant resource centers often find themselves holding workshops or trainings to help explain the decision to students, yet they are also processing the decision themselves. 

    “You have to check in with the students, but sometimes no one is checking in with you,” said Eric Yang, a recipient who has worked with immigrant students at two different California universities. “How can we help others if we can’t even advocate for ourselves?”

    University of California officials are currently examining ways to support employees if the temporary deportation protections are terminated, according to UC Office of the President spokesperson Stett Holbrook. He added that the UC Immigrant Legal Services Center offered immigration consultation workshops for recipient employees last summer, “many of which identified eligibility for employment, family or humanitarian relief.”

    RESOURCES FOR UNDOCUMENTED COLLEGE EMPLOYEES

    “The University of California has a long record of support for DACA recipients, and we will continue to support our students, staff and faculty regardless of their immigration status,” Holbrook said.

    The University of California is also currently considering a proposal to allow the university to hire students who do not have work permits under DACA. A coalition of immigrant students and allies, including legal scholars at UCLA and elsewhere, have argued that a federal law barring the hiring of immigrants living in the country without permission doesn’t apply to state entities.

    California State University and California Community Colleges both offer free legal services to employees who have temporary work permits. However, advocates said many faculty and staff are unaware that these services are not just for students.

    Melissa Villarin, spokesperson for the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office, said the community colleges have also recently included resources for staff and faculty during the annual Undocumented Student Action Week.

    Díaz also recommended more training for university staff about DACA recipients. She said survey respondents said there was a lack of awareness or understanding among other staff and faculty about their colleagues who have temporary protection under the program.

    “There was just no knowledge by institutions of higher ed about even having undocumented staff and faculty on campus,” Díaz said.

    She said lack of awareness can lead to insensitivity. At one point, for example, she said a human resources director asked her why she didn’t just fix her status or apply for a green card, not understanding that Díaz, like most immigrants who entered or stayed in the U.S. without permission, didn’t have a way to apply for a green card without leaving the country and possibly having to stay out for up to 10 years.

    Yang said universities should do more to highlight the stories of staff who are covered by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program “so that people in the public know that there are professional staff who are also potentially without any protection or support.”

    Despite the challenges these immigrants face, Bertadillo Rodríguez said they should be commended for their work. “They’re very involved in the students’ lives because they’re able to create such strong bonds with the students,” she said. “They’re some of the most exceptional and brilliant practitioners that I’ve come across in higher education.”





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  • College district investigating employees’ actions during union meetings on sexual violence case

    College district investigating employees’ actions during union meetings on sexual violence case


    Fresno City College on Dec. 5, 2023

    Credit: Lasherica Thornton/ EdSource

    The State Center Community College District announced late Friday that it is investigating allegations of “inappropriate behavior” by several unnamed employees who allegedly made several female employees “feel unsafe” during union meetings this month.

    The district received “several complaints” of alleged misconduct, a spokesperson, Jill Wagner, said in the statement. “We fully support survivors of violence and harassment, and we find this behavior, if confirmed, unacceptable, as it greatly impacts the faculty in our district and contributes to a toxic work environment.”

    Noting that the district “does not normally become involved in internal faculty union activities,” the statement adds that “these complaints warrant further investigation by the faculty union, especially as they impact” district employees.

    Multiple people familiar with the matter said the union meetings involved discussions about Fresno City College Academic Senate President Tom Boroujeni, whom the district placed on paid leave Nov. 30. The move came the day after EdSource reported that in 2020, a Fresno State University investigation determined that Boroujeni committed an “act of sexual violence” against a professor. The alleged victim also teaches part time at City College.

    The union met on the matter Dec. 1, with some members calling for the group’s leadership to be transparent about what it knew about Boroujeni. In an internal statement obtained by EdSource, union leadership had written, “In no way does the federation endorse or condone acts of harassment or violence in any circumstance.”  That statement, Laurie Taylor, an anthropology professor at Clovis Community College, told Edsource seemed “dismissive and placating,” adding “more could have been said.” 

    Keith Ford, president of the union, the State Center Federation of Teachers, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday. Nor did members of the union’s executive committee.

    The district’s Friday statement also called for the union to investigate the alleged misconduct. 

    Wagner did not respond to a request for an interview Friday with Chancellor Carole Goldsmith.

    The statement said that complaints brought to the district involve allegations of behavior that “greatly impacts the faculty.” 

    The day after the EdSource report on the Fresno State sexual violence, three female city college instructors abruptly canceled class, telling EdSource they felt unsafe on campus. The cancelations came as students were preparing for final exams and contributed to the district’s decision to place Boroujeni on paid leave. 

    The district’s action against Boroujeni, 38, of Clovis, a communication instructor also known as Farrokh Eizadiboroujeni and Tom Eizadi, was the subject of heated union discussions, according to people familiar with them. Some members defended Boroujeni, who is also being investigated over what he told EdSource were complaints of three women for what he defined as “gender discrimination.”

    In an interview with EdSource in October, Boroujeni identified one of the complainants as Cyndie Luna, dean of the college’s Fine, Performing and Communication Arts Division. Separately, Luna issued a letter of reprimand to Boroujeni last year that criticized him for incidents of unprofessional conduct which were “becoming more frequent and aggressive” and “causing me grave concern as your supervisor.” 

    Luna also wrote that in a conversation with her, Boroujeni referred to a colleague with an apparent racial slur and, in a “menacing and threatening” tone, said he “will get” the colleague for gossiping about him. 

    Boroujeni told EdSource that Luna fabricated the accusations in the letter. “She makes up a lot of things,” he said. Boroujeni also claimed to EdSource that the professor against whom Fresno State determined he committed “an act of sexual violence” fabricated the allegations against him. 

    He also complained that Luna was criticizing him for actions he took as academic senate president, a position in which he said he was immune from her oversight.

    At a SCCCD board of trustees meeting Tuesday in Fresno, the president of the academic senate at Clovis Community College said Ford had supported at a union meeting that Boroujeni was being punished.

    “Our union president helped to create and perpetuate a narrative that a specific harasser was being targeted by the administration because of his work on the academic senate,” Teresa Mendes, an English instructor, said at the meeting without mentioning Boroujeni by name. 

    “This was a false narrative,” Mendes said, “and I blatantly reject the characterization that those who participate in participatory governance are targeted or reprimanded for their work.”

    The “system has to be changed so that there is no safe harbor in (the district) for those who commit sexual assault and harassment,” she said, and no “safe harbor in our unions” for people who “harbor misogynistic and discriminatory thoughts against other faculty, staff and students.”

    Trustees and district officials did not respond to Mendes. Neither Boroujeni nor Ford was present in person at the meeting. It is unclear if either participated electronically. 

    Stetler Brown, an alumnus of the college district, ripped the district via Zoom on Tuesday. “The system is designed to protect educators that have been found (to have made) credible racist threats, misogyny and sexual violence,” he said.

    Without mentioning Boroujeni by name, Brown stated that tenure granted by SCCCD gives employees “a job as long as they desire.” Boroujeni received tenure this year. He told EdSource that district officials knew of the Fresno State sexual violence case when he was tenured. 

    ”Tuition and taxpayer dollars will protect predators, and that nobody will take responsibility for this individual’s tenure and promotion,” Brown said. “It is no wonder public support for higher education is waning. I hope that this serves as a call to the leadership of this district to make changes that protect survivors and show students that they stand for justice.”

    The district’s investigation of misconduct at the union meetings comes as the bargaining unit is choosing its leaders. Ford, a Fresno City College English instructor, is seeking another term as union president. He faces at least one challenger — Madera Community College business instructor Gina Vagnino, in an election scheduled for Jan. 16. It was not immediately clear Friday if there are other challengers.

    Vagnino confirmed she is a candidate but did not respond to multiple questions from EdSource about whether she is running specifically because of the disagreements within the union over the Boroujeni matter.

    The Fresno State investigation, based on the federal anti-discrimination law known as Title IX, determined that Boroujeni committed the act of sexual violence in 2015, when he was a graduate student and part-time instructor at Fresno State. The case wasn’t fully resolved until February, when the alleged victim reached a $53,300 settlement with the university after claiming it hadn’t done enough to protect her, university records show.

    Boroujeni was also a part-time instructor at Fresno City College while finishing a master’s degree at Fresno State in 2015, records show.

    He resigned from Fresno State last year while facing a second, unrelated misconduct allegation that was found to be unsubstantiated, records show. He agreed to never seek or accept work in the 23-campus system again. 

    Boroujeni was never disciplined in the sexual violence matter because he was a graduate student when the alleged violence occurred. But Fresno State officials told him that the investigative report on the matter was going to be placed in his personnel file last year when he was up for a performance evaluation. He said he resigned so that a three-person committee reviewing him could not have access to the document.

    Fresno State released a redacted copy of the report to EdSource under the state’s Public Records Act. “Given that Mr. Boroujeni remains active in the educational community and is teaching at a local community college, there is strong public interest in knowing that a college instructor has been previously found to have committed an act of sexual violence at another university,” the report stated.





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  • Q&A: How the 50-year-old case that transformed English learner education began

    Q&A: How the 50-year-old case that transformed English learner education began


    Children pose on the steps of Immigrants Development Center of San Francisco in the 1970s.

    Credit: San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library

    Fifty years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court decided a case that would forever change education for English learners in this country.

    In the 1974 case Lau v. Nichols, the court decided that students learning English had a right to fully understand what was being taught in their classrooms, and that schools must take steps to make sure that they could, whether through additional instruction in English as a second language or bilingual education.

    Prior to the Supreme Court’s decision, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had said that San Francisco Unified was not discriminating against students by giving them the same materials and instruction as other students.

    Rather, it said the alleged discrimination was “the result of deficiencies created by the children themselves in failing to learn the English language.”

    Lucinda Lee Katz
    Credit: Courtesy of Lucinda Lee Katz

    The Supreme Court disagreed. “There is no equality of treatment merely by providing students with the same facilities, textbooks, teachers, and curriculum; for students who do not understand English are effectively foreclosed from any meaningful education,” wrote Justice William O. Douglas in the majority opinion.

    The Lau v. Nichols case is named for one of the plaintiffs, a little boy named Kinney Lau, who had recently emigrated from Hong Kong. Kinney Lau’s first grade teacher at Jean Parker Elementary School in San Francisco was Lucinda Lee Katz. 

    In an interview, Katz shared how this case marked her life, how it changed education for English learners and what remains to be done to give English learners full access to the same instruction as their peers.

    This interview was edited for clarity and brevity.

    How and why did you get involved with the Lau v. Nichols case?

    When I became a teacher, I had Kinney Lau in my first grade classroom. And Mrs. Lau said to me, “Miss Lee, I come from Hong Kong where all the students are exposed to two languages. We can read, write, speak and learn in English and Cantonese. I don’t understand why we can’t do that in San Francisco. Can you help us? Because Kinney is losing his experience with math learning, and I want him to keep up.” 

    English was the first language of instruction. Sometimes I could interpret or translate, but I knew I was stepping out of my lane when I did that.

    Mrs. Lau wanted formal instruction. She said, “I get it if you have to teach English and writing in English, but he’s losing valuable time not understanding math. So could you just teach math in Chinese?

    So that was the first conversation. I went home and told my roommates. They were all in law school. And I said, “Can we do something about it?” They took it to (the San Francisco) Neighborhood Legal Assistance (Foundation), and the person who took it on was Ed Steinman. And he took it all the way to the Supreme Court.

    What was your own experience in school like as a child, and how did it influence you?

    I went through Washington Irving Elementary School, Francisco Middle School and Lowell High School. I had not one Chinese teacher.

    My kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Thompson, kept saying, “No Chinese! No Chinese here! No Chinese!” All the kids in the classroom were Chinese and Chinese-speaking. As a kindergartner, I noted that, and I said to myself, “What is she talking about? She’s the only one that can’t speak Chinese, and I don’t get this.” So it stayed in my mind for a very long time.

    My father and his father were from China. And in 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act was the first significant law that was passed by Congress restricting Chinese immigrants. It’s actually one of the most discriminatory laws in the books. Interestingly, the 1906 earthquake fire destroyed all the records in San Francisco. And as a result of that, and because of the discrimination, the Chinese found a way to come over through the “paper sons and daughters” system. So a Mr. Wong who lived in San Francisco and was a citizen could sell his name to somebody in China, and they would pay a lot of money. My father and grandfather came over as “paper sons,” and each of them were named Mr. Wong when their real family name was Lee. And I was Lucinda Wong from birth through eighth grade. Because in the late 1950s, Eisenhower changed the “paper sons and daughters,” so they could apply for naturalization with their real names. So when I was in eighth grade, my principal called me in, and she said, “Lucinda Wong, tomorrow you are going to be Lucinda Lee.”

    So I really feel that it was unusual circumstances that brought us all together — that I had Kinney Lau, that Mrs. Lau was this kind of representative, that I understood Mrs. Thompson’s shaking finger at us, “No Chinese here,” the Chinese Exclusion Act, my father’s experience coming over to this country as a “paper son.” (All of this) made me think something has to be done. 

    How did you and other teachers push for bilingual education, outside of the courts?

    I became very active, marching and speaking with parent groups and doing sort of the heavy work between 1969 and 1972. I have a photograph of me speaking before the board, speaking to parents to get them educated and riled up. 

    I think I basically said we are harming ourselves when children enter our systems and don’t have access to two languages so that they can keep moving forward. That we’re actually handicapping them by making them try to learn English only, when for two or three years, there could be a gradual transition. Secondly, I want teachers trained to understand that the brain can do two cultures, multi-languages, multicultural, and they should be trained. Three, if you have kids that have any kind of learning difference, we should know how to address that and not assume that they’re lacking in English.

    The other thing I did was, I brought Chinese culture into Jean Parker School because they didn’t celebrate Chinese New Year, Lunar New Year, nothing. And I said, “You can’t do that. Ninety percent of the kids in the school are from Chinese backgrounds, and you have to understand why they’re dressed the way they are during Lunar New Year, and that it’s a big deal. That’s our main holiday.” And the principal allowed me to have an assembly. But I didn’t tell her that I was bringing in lion dancers and drums, and it got the Chinese kids all riled up and excited.

    Do you remember where you were when you heard that the decision finally came down from the Supreme Court?

    I was at (the University of Illinois) Urbana-Champaign getting my doctorate. I was in the middle of classes and doing my dissertation. I read it in the paper. My husband said, “Look, there was a Supreme Court decision. They passed that Lau versus Nichols thing.” I said, “Yes!” Everything that was meant to be actually happened. And you know, they were celebrating like crazy here (in San Francisco.)

    But you know, there are still problems because it didn’t say how you should do it or that they would give it money. They just said, “Yeah, let’s do it.” So it’s up to every school district to do it in their own way.

    Before Lau v. Nichols, San Francisco had some bilingual education, right?

    When I went to Commodore Stockton Elementary School, I was hired as a bilingual, bicultural teacher, because San Francisco was trying something new. I applied for the job, and I was snapped up. There were three classrooms. Each of us had classroom assistants who could speak either Cantonese or English. I happened to have gone to Chinese school for 12 years. So I was Cantonese-speaking. It was also the period of school busing. So, in my first year, I had almost all Chinese kids in this bilingual, bicultural classroom. In my second year, I had kids from Noe Valley and the Mission and Hunter’s Point, who would bravely get on the bus ride for half an hour, 45 minutes to come to Commodore Stockton to be in my classroom. They were exposed to both English and Chinese.

    How did Lau v. Nichols change bilingual education in California?

    Well, what changed in San Francisco specifically was that Gordon Lew, who was the editor of a newspaper in Chinatown, started volunteering to write curriculum for the San Francisco School District in Chinese and in English. That was very amazing.

    When I went back to look at the Chinatown Community Children’s Center (a bilingual preschool where Katz had been the first director), the kids were so happy. Some were still speaking Chinese only, and many of them were speaking clearly in English and so forth, at age 3, 4 and 5. I haven’t had the chance to go into elementary schools, but both my sisters were school principals and they told me stories about how a lot of their kids could transition back and forth between English and Chinese, but likewise, Spanish, Tagalog (and other languages).

    How do you think California is doing with teaching English learners and with bilingual education?

    It’s really a little tough. There’s more curriculum and there are more people who can do it. So that’s a plus. But California really has to codify the approach as a viable program. I know you’re mostly focused on California, and the states that have the most bilingual students, or English language learners (ELL), are California, Texas, Illinois, Florida, New York. But it turns out Wyoming, Nebraska, Indiana, Kentucky and Alabama have growing populations. 

    What they don’t have is the following: They don’t have a clear identification system for who is ELL and what kind of services they need, and how that’s differentiated from a student who has learning disabilities. They can mistake an English language learner as though they are a learning-disabled student. So they need to clean that up.

    They need to provide families with what I call wraparound services so that when they come to school, they can request a translator or request somebody to help guide them through the system. They need to have an English language development program for those that are designated. I think every employee, not just English language learner teachers, should be trained in what the highlights and challenges are for an English language learner and the family that they come from. Second, you can offer bilingual (education). And then I just think that there should be a way to monitor how these programs are doing and how these kids are doing. And we don’t have a monitoring system.

    What do you think that parents and teachers and everyone can learn from the story of Lau v. Nichols?

    They should understand and know that you can be a fully high-functioning person in two languages, three languages. No more Mrs. Thompson, “No Chinese here.” That is so old school. We need to open our minds to the fact that the brain can handle many languages and many cultural shifts. 

    Two, every teacher should be trained to understand, what is ELL? Three, there would be a much better approach if the kids at age 4 or 5 actually had some kind of screening, so that you might have a kid that’s 60% fluent in English, but just needs a little more targeted (instruction), another year, maybe two years of a focused program. So assessing the kids early on would be very important.

    I think the next thing is getting the parents to understand how important these programs are. And they need to support it with their time, their volunteer time, their money, their talent, whatever they do, we need to give it complete focus.

    And the school districts need to understand that there are many gradations of bilingual-bicultural. It’s not just like one or the other. It’s very complicated. So I just think if the state and each school district could do it, we would be way better off. And California is way further ahead than most of these other places.





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  • Professor, community college reach $2.4 million settlement in free speech case

    Professor, community college reach $2.4 million settlement in free speech case


    Matthew Garrett, a former professor at Bakersfield College, recently settled a lawsuit with his former employer.

    Credit: Bakersfield College / Facebook

    Este artículo está disponible en Español. Léelo en español.

    A long-running saga involving a Kern County community college professor — hailed as a defender of free speech by some but by others as a source of campus strife — has ended with a $2.4 million payment from the community college district and the professor’s resignation. 

    Matthew Garrett, who was a tenured professor of history at Bakersfield College, resigned from his position and agreed to drop all claims against the Kern Community College District, according to settlement terms reached in July.

    That includes the lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, claiming that the community college district violated Garrett’s First Amendment rights. Garrett also agreed to drop an administrative challenge to the district’s board, which had voted in favor of firing Garrett on April 13, 2023.

    The federal suit alleging free speech violations will continue with Erin Miller, also a history professor at Bakersfield College, as lead plaintiff. The next hearing is set for Nov. 7 at the Robert E. Coyle U.S. Courthouse in Fresno in front of presiding Judge Kirk E. Sheriff. Miller declined to comment on the case, deferring to her attorney.

    In turn, the district has dropped the claims it made against Garrett. In a letter recommending Garrett’s termination on April 14, 2023, Zav Dadabhoy, then-interim president of Bakersfield College, stated that the board should consider Garrett’s “immoral conduct, unprofessional conduct, dishonesty, evident unfitness for service.”

    The district will distribute $2.2 million for “alleged general and emotional distress damages” through an annuity and another $154,520 for back pay and medical benefits. The settlement outlines that neither the district nor Garrett are admitting to any wrongdoing or liability. 

    Garrett, 46, was a vocal critic of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies that were being rolled out in the Kern Community College District. He claimed the district was supporting “highly partisan propaganda.” He wrote a piece in 2023 on a site called Minding the Campus that criticized the administration for turning Bakersfield College into what he called “a place of implicit bias and microaggression training; racial quotas and affirmative action preferences; racially segregated programming emphasizing ethno-nationalist rhetoric.”

    Garrett said that he ultimately decided to settle because the case was draining him financially. He was also concerned that the college district would continue to appeal and prolong the case, even if he initially won.

    Despite the settlement, both sides — Garrett and spokespersons for the community college district — still do not agree on the details of the dispute.

    According to the district, the dispute stemmed from Garrett’s “unprofessional” conduct toward other faculty and students, according to a statement issued by the district shortly after the settlement.

    “The dispute with Matthew Garrett was a disciplinary matter due to his disruptive actions on campus, none of which concerned freedom of speech,” read the district statement.

    Garrett counters that the problems started because the district violated his First Amendment rights and retaliated against him for criticizing an administration that he claims inappropriately promoted a “one-sided partisan political agenda” focused on “social justice.” He disputes the list of charges that the district made in its recommendation to terminate him, which include “baseless attacks” on the district and his colleagues. 

    “I’m tired of this lie,” Garrett told EdSource.  “All I asked is, ‘Why is money going here?’”

    Disputing Garrett’s claim about the violation of his free speech rights, the district said in its statement to the media after the settlement, “Kern Community College District unequivocally supports the right for our students and faculty to share their views and opinions on campus and elsewhere.”

    Free speech in academia

    Garrett’s case attracted the attention of free speech advocates nationwide, especially those who believe college campuses are suppressing conservative viewpoints. 

    Garrett’s attorney Arthur Willner said he took on the case because he believes free speech is under assault on college campuses nationally. He is a partner with Leader Berkon Colao & Silverstein, a part of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) network, a free speech advocacy group.

    “When you start restricting faculty and students, it not only punishes the speaker, but it also cheats the students in the classroom, who might hear a nice robust debate that interests them,” Wilner said.

    Courts tend to interpret free speech broadly for professors, because they are expected to “speak out and take controversial positions,” stated David Loy, legal director of the First Amendment Coalition, a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization that promotes freedom of expression. He declined to take a position on Garrett’s case, but noted that colleges and universities are a “unique kind of workplace,” compared with other positions in government, such as in a planning or park department.

    “The concept of what is ‘duly disruptive’ is different than it is in other settings,” he said, adding that being offended or not liking what a professor has to say is generally not enough to justify cracking down on speech.

    Even untruths can be considered protected speech, Loy said, because the government is not a referee in the debate over what is or is not true. He said it would require “extreme circumstances” for an academic to lose their position by making outrageously false and defamatory statements, such as falsely claiming that a department chair is kidnapping children and stealing from the budget.

    The controversy

    The controversy began with a debate in the op-ed pages of The Bakersfield Californian that led to a public presentation Garrett made at Bakersfield College. The debate spilled over onto a local radio show hosted by conservative Terry Maxwell.  

    Miller introduced Garrett in 2019 when he gave the presentation called “A Tale of Two Protests” that contrasted how the Bakersfield College administration responded to two incidents on campus. The first involved chalkings that referred to Christopher Columbus as a “murderer” and “genocidal maniac.” In the other, stickers with phrases such as “never apologize for being white” and “smash cultural Marxism” were placed on bulletin boards, primarily those of Chicano studies-related events. The stickers were created by the Hundred Handers and promoted on a Telegram social media channel by a leader who was jailed earlier this year in the United Kingdom for “inciting racial hatred” with stickering campaigns, according to the BBC.

    Garrett defended the free speech of both incidents, but decried the administration for making a campuswide announcement that characterized the latter as “hate speech.” Garrett argued that the stickers may be a protest against diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives on campus.

    “I am neither endorsing the sticker campaign’s methods nor its messages, but I am asking that we take them seriously,” he wrote in his op-ed in The Bakersfield Californian. “Does our community’s college devote disproportionate attention and resources to certain groups at the expense of others? Does that marginalize some students? To what extent is that appropriate?” 

    Garrett, a white man, is a vocal critic of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, particularly those aimed at specific racial groups on campus. For instance, he calls Umoja — a program that offers courses and club activities aimed at improving the success of African American students throughout California community colleges — a “racially segregated class” that he told EdSource should produce data to show that it is not a “crutch” that actually undermines students’ self-sufficiency.

    Professors Andrew Bond and Oliver Rosales, Garrett’s colleagues at Bakersfield College, took issue with some of the claims in Garrett’s September 2019 presentation, which they said were repeated on Terry Maxwell’s radio show. The professors filed a complaint against Garrett with the college’s human resources department, claiming that he acted unprofessionally by accusing them of financial impropriety. The district said it hired an independent investigator who corroborated those charges against Garrett.

    Garrett said the district mischaracterized him. He said he was not accusing the college or any professor of anything illegal; he was just criticizing the college’s affiliations with what he called “partisan” groups. Garrett characterized a noncredit course covering the history of Cesar Chavez and the United Farmworker Movement in Kern County, which was created by Rosales, as “partisan indoctrination.”

    Paige Atkinson, then a journalism student at Bakersfield College, weighed in through a piece that ran in The Bakersfield Californian and a local site called South Kern Sol. In the piece, she praised college staff for “protecting its minority students by alerting them to the vandalism — even if it means ruffling the feathers of apologists on campus.” The piece criticized Garrett as one of those apologists. Atkinson said that the Hundred Handers was not simply a “conservative” group exercising its right to free speech, as Garrett wrote, but a “blatantly hateful” group that promoted “white supremacy and the inevitable violence it brings.”

    Garrett responded, calling South Kern Sol a “propaganda site” for the United Farm Workers and activist Dolores Huerta. He said the publication was partisan and that it was inappropriate for the Kern Community College District to donate to them. He accused Atkinson, then editor-in-chief of Bakersfield College’s student paper, of writing a “hit piece” on him in coordination with the district.

    “I said, ‘Why is the college paying for this smear piece?’” Garrett said, in an interview with EdSource.

    District spokesperson Norma Rojas said Bakersfield College faculty and programs sometimes obtain grants, which may be maintained in district accounts but will not commingle with other district or college funds. Grant funds donated to South Kern Sol came from a student journalism grant from the Virginia and Alfred Harrell Foundation in partnership with California Humanities and administered through the Bakersfield College Foundation, Rojas said in a statement. 

    The district denied that it otherwise had a relationship with South Kern Sol “outside of their traditional outreach to a wide variety of local media to inform of news and happenings,” according to a recent statement from the district. 

    John Harte, a retired professor of journalism at Bakersfield College, praised his former student, Atkinson, and defended her against Garrett’s charge that she had coordinated her piece with district leadership — which would be considered a serious breach of journalism ethics.

    The conflict widened beyond the topic of campus protest to include more students and many more professors. Garrett founded the Renegade Institute for Liberty (RIFL), a group of faculty members that aimed to promote “open discourse of diverse political ideas with an emphasis on American ideals and western historical values.” The group’s posts on Facebook became a lightning rod for criticism — and the subject of the recommendation to terminate Garrett by then-interim President Dadabhoy.

    That recommendation said that Garrett, as faculty lead of RIFL, failed to restrict its “baseless attacks” on the district and colleagues. It took issue with one Facebook post that called the “chronic mismanagement” of a local bond measure a “consistent embarrassment” for the college and another post that said the college’s curriculum committee were giving away the equivalent of participation trophies by approving Rosales’ course that covered farmworker history.

    Conflict over diversity, equity and inclusion

    The implementation of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives has divided faculty and staff at Kern Community College District, particularly its largest campus in Bakersfield, where Garrett worked, according to a workplace survey conducted last spring.

    One Bakersfield College faculty member quoted anonymously in the survey called diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives “an ideological religion” and complained that the debate over DEI has “led to a social and political divide that is disrupting the ability of employees to collaborate.”

    In a lengthier version of the survey, another college faculty member praised the district’s leadership for understanding the value of diversity, equity and inclusion but noted that there is “significant” opposition to DEI, especially in the faculty ranks. This faculty member pointed to Garrett and RIFL as a source of discord on campus and for promoting “agenda, politics and hate” on every college committee and that they had “successfully halted almost all inclusive and equity based work on this campus.”

    The Kern Community College District pointed to Garrett’s public accusations as a cause of internal strife in the district.

    “Garrett’s pursuit of notoriety devolved the sincere efforts by the District and the community to create an environment where students can thrive into an environment of hostility and anger,” the district’s statement after the lawsuit said. 

    Harte agreed and said that he’s happy to see Garrett go.

    “I think Garrett’s settlement and his resignation in the long-run is best for the students,” Harte said. “He is really divisive.”

    Garrett pointed to the workplace survey as evidence that district leadership is to blame for that dysfunction. The word “retaliation” came up in 75 out of 423 employee surveys. “Social and political agendas” came up in 131 surveys.

    “It’s not just ‘crazy disgruntled Matt Garrett’,” Garrett said.

    The Kern Community College District’s new chancellor, Steven Bloomberg, said in a statement to EdSource that he has begun addressing the concerns outlined in the workplace survey, such as creating a leadership development program for supervisors.

    “We have heard the concerns from faculty and staff and are actively working to address them,” Bloomberg wrote. “I am committed to fostering a culture of continuous improvement.”

    The settlement doesn’t mean that Garrett has stopped criticizing the Kern Community College District. Since the settlement was announced, he has spoken out, through his personal Facebook page, against the contract renewal of the vice chancellor of human resources, who he claims targeted him and is responsible for the district’s poor workplace climate. Both he and RIFL have posted about the board members who voted to dismiss him, demanding accountability.

    “I didn’t want to be an activist,” Garrett said. “But I’m going to keep pointing out the problems.”

    Disclosure: Emma Gallegos was an independent freelancer who wrote pieces for South Kern Sol between 2017 and 2019.





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  • Federal judge dismisses case claiming community college diversity policies infringe on academic freedom

    Federal judge dismisses case claiming community college diversity policies infringe on academic freedom


    Bill Blanken, a chemistry professor at Reedley College, claims that a diversity and equity policy in California’s community colleges amounts to a “loyalty oath.”

    Photo courtesy of Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression

    A federal judge has dismissed a case filed on behalf of professors claiming that California Community Colleges diversity and equity policies infringe on their academic freedom.

    Professors at State Center Community College District, based in Fresno, had, in a suit filed in August 2023, sought to block the California Community Colleges from enforcing diversity, equity, accessibility and inclusion (DEIA) principles. 

    But U.S. District Judge Kirk E. Sherriff, a Biden appointee who joined the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California in 2024, wrote in an order Tuesday that the plaintiffs “failed to allege that there exists a credible threat of enforcement of the regulations against them.”

    The plaintiff’s attorney, Daniel Ortner, with the free-speech advocacy group Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), said he was reviewing the decision and discussing it with his clients.

    In 2022, the board of governors for the California Community Colleges adopted regulations requiring all 73 of its local districts to evaluate employees, including faculty, on their competency in working with a diverse student population. More than 7 out of 10 of California’s 2.1 million community students are not white, according to enrollment data from the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office.

    State Center Community College District complied with these regulations with a faculty union contract approved in March 2023. The district declined through a spokesperson to comment on the case.

    The push for new diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility policies came out of a long-running effort to improve student outcomes in the community colleges, but it picked up steam in the wake of the George Floyd protests in 2020. 

    The original complaint described the professors as critics of anti-racism, who instead support “race-neutral policies and perspectives that treat all students equally.” The complaint stated that requiring faculty to be evaluated on their commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility principles is unconstitutional and has a chilling effect on their free speech rights. The professors said they feared receiving disciplinary action or being fired under these new regulations.

    Lead plaintiff Loren Palsgaard, an English professor at Madera Community College, said in the complaint that he no longer assigned Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” because it “offer[s] perspectives that are different from the ‘anti-racism’ and ‘intersectionality’ perspective mandated by the DEIA Rules.” Reedley College chemistry professor Bill Blanken said he feared that not mentioning the races of Marie Curie or Robert Boyle means that “he will be accused of failing to adopt a ‘culturally responsive practices and a social justice lens.’”

    Judge Sherriff wrote that many of the professors’ concerns arose from documents from the Chancellor’s Office, such as guidance, recommendations, model principles and a glossary of terms. He added that none of these recommendations were formally adopted or legally binding, and that what the professors largely objected to was not in their faculty contract.

    Sherriff also noted that the Chancellor’s Office confirmed in court documents that it could not take any action against professors concerning their speech, because decisions regarding employees, such as hiring, performance evaluations and terminations, are the responsibility of the district. The Office also stated that they do not believe that the examples cited by the professors would be precluded by the diversity regulations.

    In September, Sherriff dismissed a related suit on behalf of Bakersfield College history professor Daymon Johnson. Sherriff wrote in his order that Johnson lacked standing because the Kern Community College District that employed him had not yet imposed local policies implementing diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility regulations.

    In October, Johnson’s case was filed in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The State Center Community College professors filed an amicus brief in November in support of Johnson, urging the court to “protect academic freedom across the state by vacating the district court’s decision.”





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