UC Santa Cruz Apologizes For Serving Mexican Food
4.17.2015 |
News
| Peter Malcolm |
After offering Mexican food during its “Intergalactic” night, Stevenson College at the University of California, Santa Cruz found that some students took offense, calling the action racist because of a perceived link between intergalactic aliens and Mexican illegal immigrants.
Pundit Press, which first reported the incident, reports that the College apologized for its “Mexican food buffet,” as Dr. Carolyn Golz, a College Administrative Officer for Cowell & Stevenson Colleges, stated in a letter to students, “We would never want to make a connection between individuals of Latino heritage or undocumented students and ‘aliens’ and I am so sorry that our College Night appeared to do exactly that.”
In 2013-2014, the undergraduate student population at the University of Santa Cruz was 28% Latino; 11% of graduate students were Latino.
Golz added that the incident “demonstrated a cultural insensitivity on the part of the program planners and, though it was an unintentional mistake, I recognize that this incident caused harm within our community and negatively impacted students.” She insisted that that she “will require cultural competence training for Programs staff, in addition to implementing mechanisms for future program planning that will ensure college programs are culturally sensitive and inclusive.” Golz pointed out that she is “an ally for students of color and, in particular, undocumented students … (and) committed to ensuring that student life staff receive the training necessary to make sure that this type of incident does not happen again at Stevenson.”
Golz asserted, “I am working closing (sic) with Donnae Smith, Coordinator for Diversity and Inclusion for Colleges, Housing and Educational Services (CHES) to continue to increase the cultural intelligence (CQ) of our staff,” and concluded by urging students to report “hate” to
http://reporthate.ucsc.edu/.
http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/uc-santa-cruz-apologizes-serving-mexican-food
