BA in Multicultural and Gender Studies

Multicultural and Gender Studies (MCGS) is an interdisciplinary program that furthers the university’s goal of providing students with the knowledge and commitment to be socially responsible citizens in a diverse democracy and interconnected world. MCGS students and faculty analyze and challenge interlocking systems of power including racism, classism, and heterosexism. We work together as a diverse community of scholars and activists to critically examine gender, sexuality, race, and ethnicity—primarily within the U.S.—in historical and contemporary cultural contexts.

Mission

Multicultural and Gender Studies is the academic face of diversity and inclusion at CSU Chico, ever striving to embody, inculcate, promote and celebrate the values of multicultural respect, awareness and understanding as fundamental to the socially and environmentally responsible democratic citizen. We are a diverse community of scholars and activists working together to critically examine gender, sexuality, socioeconomic class, ability, race, and ethnicity and to cultivate social justice through informed activism.

Vision Statement

Multicultural and Gender Studies will serve the mission, strategic plan, and values of CSU Chico by supporting interdisciplinary scholarly inquiry and social justice advocacy both in the broadest sense and with special attention to diverse communities in the North State:

• As an Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI), we will work with our diverse Latinx communities and build a thriving, intersectional Latinx major that both reflects the diversity of our Latinx student population and educates about political struggles past and present.
• In honor of the Mechoopda, on whose land the University stands, we will collaborate with First Nations of the North State and relevant student organizations and construct an American Indian Studies curriculum that meets the needs of Natives and non-Natives alike.
• Acknowledging the established and increasing presence of Asian Americans (including Hmong and Pacific Islanders) and Eastern Indians (Sikh) in the North State, as well as our growing population of African American/Black students, faculty, and staff, we will partner with community members and create coursework rich in culture and reflective of current issues.
• Cognizant of continuing gender-based inequities, we will collaborate with feminist groups; preserve a vigorous program in feminist and women’s studies; and enhance our curriculum to make more visible identities and issues of gender non-conforming people.
• In solidarity with our oppressed yet proud LGBTQIA communities, we will reach out to campus and community partners; explore the spectrum of sexual and affective orientation, preference, and biological predisposition; and defend the right of all to love.
• In all of our courses we will analyze and challenge interlocking systems of power including racism, ethnocentrism, classism, ableism, sexism, and heterosexism. Our curriculum will examine difficult topics and focus on a long-standing tradition of pride and agency.
• To meet the needs of the entire CSUC student body, all of whom are entering an increasingly diverse professional environment, we will offer an MCGS Diversity Certificate available to any major.
• We will continuously look to emerging trends in our various disciplines, as well as demographic shifts in the North State and pressing issues of the times, to inform our ongoing curricular and programmatic vision.

Goals & Objectives

Strategic Direction 1: Students

1. Develop a coherent and cohesive curriculum for majors and minors that meets students’ needs and engages students’ interest.
   1. Survey current, past, and future potential students of MCGS to assess students’ perceived needs and stated wishes related to curriculum.
   2. Ascertain what students need to learn and experience in order to succeed at the university and beyond, from the perspective of both alumni and potential employers.
   3. Keeping in mind the needs of the 21^st century student, as well as the emerging trends in scholarship, revise departmental Student Learning Objectives and determine how the course sequence can support their achievement.
   4. Evaluate requirements for current majors and minors: minimizing unnecessary redundancies, emphasizing natural connections between courses, and discovering lacunae that must be addressed.
   5. Respond to the already established demand for curriculum reflecting the current realities of our diverse communities:
      1. Create a Latinx major, along with necessary additional courses that both appeal to and meet the needs of the students.
      2. Develop Contemporary Issues & Identities courses for each of the Ethnic Studies areas.
2. Foster diversity competency among the CSU Chico student body.
   1. Continue to contribute the highest quality courses in the General Education program.
   2. Develop foundational A-3 GE course—oral communication—introducing the intersectional inclusive language, and have assignments focus on MCGS related topics.
   3. Establish an MCGS Diversity Certificate, available to students of any major.
   4. Promote inter-departmental understanding of how MCGS minors and majors can complement a variety of fields of study and career options.
3. Recruit increasingly diverse and motivated cohorts of majors and minors.
   1. Participate in recruitment efforts on and off-campus.
4. Support student success in the MCGS programs.
   1. Determine and implement sustainable and highest quality advising practices for majors and minors.
   2. Implement proven and promising high impact practices in the classroom.
   3. Offer tutoring, peer mentors, and supplemental instruction where most necessary.
   4. Establish transparent expectations, requirements, and grading criteria in all courses.
   5. Support co-curricular activities that increase student engagement and enhance student learning.
   6. Maintain consistent communication about deadlines, events, and opportunities with students enrolled in MCGS courses and declared as our majors and minors.
   7. Partner with and support student groups and organizations such as MEChA, the AS Gender & Sexuality Equity Center (GSEC), Black Student Union (BSA), La Raza, Native American Heritage Society, and the Community Legal Information Center.
5. Advise current and potential MCGS students about the professional opportunities open to them.
   1. Investigate career paths that are supported by the knowledge base and skills acquired by MCGS majors and minors, disseminating such information in recruitment and advising.
   2. Follow the career paths of MCGS alumni, pointing to them as models to follow.
   3. Develop relationships with potential mentors and employers of MCGS students, especially reaching out to MCGS alumni.
   4. Offer opportunities for MCGS students to learn how to articulate their knowledge and skills when applying for jobs.

Strategic Direction 2: Faculty & Staff

1. Make appropriate faculty and staff hires to support majors, minors, and Diversity Certificate.
   1. Achieve 2 new full TT line hires in the immediate future: one in Queer/Trans-People Of Color Studies focusing on Chicanx/Latinx studies and one in American Indian Studies (contemporary, prefer Mechoopda specialty).
   2. Hire faculty (temporary, and over the long-range TT) to teach Ethnic Studies Education as well as contemporary issues in: African American Studies and Asian American Studies (Asian pacific islander, Hmong).
   3. Contract the most qualified, talented and dedicated career staff and student assistants.
   4. Establish and hire for 5 student intern positions *refer to document.
   5. Follow best practices to ensure:
      1. The most diverse and highly qualified applicant pool.
      2. The most unbiased hiring process.
2. Create a positive, respectful, and collegial departmental climate.
   1. Situate faculty offices in close proximity to the program office.
   2. All faculty and staff undergo Avoiding Unconscious Bias training.
3. Update and revise department standards as needed to sustain a thriving and successful community.
   1. Department processes will be as streamlined and unambiguous as possible.
   2. MCGS personnel documents will outline RTP expectations and considerations clearly.
   3. Multicultural & Gender Studies faculty will be involved with hiring and evaluating Multicultural & Gender Studies faculty.
4. Rectify challenges faced by faculty with joint appointments.
   1. Wherever possible, change faculty joint appointments to full time appointments.
   2. For continuing MCGS joint appointments, revise MOU to clarify the faculty member’s rights, responsibilities, and expectations vis-à-vis the two departments.
5. Support MCGS faculty in their course redesign, research, scholarship and creative activities.
   1. Earmark CERF funds to be used for Professional Development.
   2. Have more mentoring and better communication about how and when to apply for internal research grants and opportunities.
   3. Publicize and celebrate achievements.
6. Provide advising training and resources, especially about advising diverse students. Take advantage of Advising Boot Camp offered by advising office; train all new faculty in best practices.
7. Support instructors across the disciplines in learning and implementing Inclusive Pedagogy.

Strategic Direction 3: Community

1. Strengthen ties with communities in our service area.
   1. Establish effective communication with community groups, organizations, and populations.
   2. Get students engaged in service learning through MCGS 489 and expand our list of community partners.
   3. Disseminate information to communities about items of interest.
   4. Consult with community experts in the revision of curriculum.
   5. Acknowledge being on historic Mechoopda land at our events and activities.
2. Support community events in the area.
   1. Incentivize faculty and student involvement with MCGS-related events.
   2. Communicate to MCGS students about events, activities, and opportunities offered by community organizations.
3. Work with the local high schools.
   1. Support teachers with an online summer and winter break version of the Diversity Certificate.
   2. Invite high school students to take MCGS courses through the High School Scholars program.
   3. Visit local high school classrooms, as guest speakers and recruiters.
4. Build relationships with potential employers, discussing their needs and how the skill set of our graduates will be useful.

Strategic Direction 4: Resources

Identify and secure external sources of support to augment university-based allocations.

Wisely manage and strategically invest the resources entrusted to

1. Participate with SOE/CME in Title V grant proposals.
2. Partner with other departments in course offerings, to share the financial responsibility.
3. Seek funding to emulate the CSU Long Beach Ethnic Studies Initiative, providing Ethnic Studies coursework in the local high schools.
4. Seek Title IX funding to create and staff new curriculum in gender-based interpersonal violence and prevention.

Learning Outcomes

SLO #1 MCGS majors will be able to identify, explain, and analyze major issues related to diverse identities and experiences through various theoretical lenses; particular areas of focus include women, gender, U.S. race and ethnicity, sexuality, socioeconomic class, and ability.

SLO #2 MCGS majors will be able to effectively apply field-specific vocabulary, concepts, theories, and interdisciplinary analytical frameworks in activities and assignments.

SLO #3 MCGS majors will be able to interpret the concept of intersectionality, as well as the interlocking systems of power including racism, ethnocentrism, classism, ableism, sexism, and heterosexism.

SLO #4 MCGS majors will be able to:

1. engage in interdisciplinary scholarly research;
2. employ effective data collection;
3. apply diverse analysis methods;
4. make informed, professional uses of technology.

SLO #5 MCGS majors will be able to compose comprehensible, well organized, and substantive verbal presentations in the discipline.

SLO #6 MCGS majors will be able to compose comprehensible, well organized, and substantive scholarly writing in the discipline.

SLO #7 MCGS majors will be able to demonstrate capacity for leadership and work effectively in teams with a diverse range of individuals.

SLO #8 MCGS majors will be able to apply their knowledge of women, gender, U.S. race and ethnicity, sexuality, socioeconomic class, and ability to an organization or community effort.