News & Announcements
In the first comprehensive survey of its kind, an SF State History professor and three graduate students have discovered that more than 600 LGBTQ+ protests took place in the United States between 1965 and 1973. The researchers say the study documents the very direct-action events for civil rights — demonstrations, marches, parades, rallies, riots and sit-ins — that some politicians seek to ban from being taught in schools.
OutHistory and Queer Pasts published the study jointly on March 1. Marc Stein, SF State’s Jamie and Phyllis Pasker Chair in History, led the study with graduate student researchers Dylan Weir, Mario Burrus and Adam Joseph Nichols. Stein says that “Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and his allies want to cancel, censor and closet” these types of events from U.S. history.
“We’re seeing a wave of conservative campaigns that target the way we teach history in the United States, especially when it comes to teaching about race, gender and sexual orientation,” Stein said. “While it’s important that we respond, we also need to move forward with the necessary work of reconstructing the way we understand the past. For queer history, it’s not enough to only reference the Stonewall rebellion of 1969; we need to understand the mobilization and radicalization of a large social movement that lasted for years, organized in diverse locations, engaged millions of people and targeted multiple institutions in society.”
The study identifies 646 direct-action protests, with more than 200,000 participants and nearly 200 arrests. Protests weren’t limited to New York and California: They took place in 20 states and the District of Columbia. The researchers pored over more than 1,800 media sources, going beyond well-known events such as the Stonewall Inn rebellion of 1969 in New York City and the transgender-led Compton’s Cafeteria riot in 1966 in San Francisco.
Read more about the study at SF State News.
Photo by Greg Gaar Photography, courtesy OpenSFHistory.org.
The California State University has teamed up with Crisis-24 to provide University international travelers with access to up-to-the-minute, destination-specific health, security and safety briefings for all travelers.
Upon completion of Enterprise Risk Management’s enrollment of international travel in CSU’s Foreign Travel Insurance Program (FTIP), each traveler will receive an email directly from Crisis-24 with details about the Crisis-24 services including instructions for downloading the Worldcue app. Please follow the instructions to download the Worldcue app prior to departing on your trip. This will provide you with access to valuable Worldcue safety and security utilities, such as:
- Hotline button: Use this button to connect directly with AXA’s 24x7 Hotline Center in the event of an incident.
- Check-in button: Use this button to confirm your location and safety or to communicate your safety during a dynamic security event (i.e., terrorist attack, tornado, tsunami, shooting).
- Crisis button: Use this button if you need immediate assistance and cannot speak on the phone. Defer to the Hotline button if you are able.
- Pushed intelligence alerts: Relevant intel is pushed to you based on your itinerary. You can adjust the level of alerts in your profile settings once activated.
Please reach out to Enterprise Risk Management at riskmgmt@sfsu.edu if you have any questions about these services now being provided to our international travelers by Crisis-24. Learn more about foreign travel insurance on the Enterprise Risk Management website.
The CSU is now accepting course proposals for the fall 2023 CourseMatch program. As a reminder, CourseMatch courses must be asynchronous, have a repeatable grade rate of no more than 15 percent, reserve at least 10 seats up through the first day of term and have faculty-accepted training in online pedagogy. Learn more or submit a proposal on the Center for Equity and Excellence in Teaching and Learning website.
The Staff Council wants the voice of every member of the SF State community to be heard. They hope that you will vote for your colleagues for Staff Council positions. The voting period for the spring 2023 Staff Council election is March 27 – April 14. Current vacancies are:
- Unit 1
- Unit 2
- Unit 4
- Unit 5
- Unit 6
- Unit 8
- Unit 9 — TECH Service
The Staff Council will be assisting several University committees to fill staff representation. You can indicate your willingness to serve on a committee using Qualtrics.
For more information about the Staff Council, please read the Staff Council Constitution and Bylaws. Any questions can be directed to the Staff Council.
The Staff Council would like to thank you for your contribution to the shared governance of San Francisco State University.
San Francisco State University is hosting a site visit by the WASC Senior College and University Commission (WSCUC) April 5 – 7, in connection with its accreditation. The team has requested open meetings with staff and faculty to provide an opportunity for informal input from all members of the campus community about their experiences with the institution. The meetings will be in-person.
The Staff Forum will be on Thursday, April 6, from 11:15 a.m. to 12 p.m. in HSS 154.
The Faculty Forum will be on Thursday, April 6, from 2 to 2:45 p.m. in HSS 154.
If you can’t attend the forum, a confidential email is available to contact the review team. Only authorized WSCUC staff and team members have access to it. The emails are not viewed by any representative of the institution. The team is not able to meet individually with members of the campus community, so please do not use the email account to request private appointments.
To write to the WSCUC team, please address your email to sfsu@wscuc.org.
To access the institutional report submitted to WSCUC in September, please go to
sfsu.app.box.com/file/1022031905615?s=77nj2siv04h1ecqvkgkvd5v1swo0k2yl.
Office of Diversity, Student Equity and Interfaith Programs will host a presentation by Alystar Sacks, assistant regional director, Anti-Defamation League Pacific Region, on antisemitism and how you can respond on Thursday, March 30, from noon to 1:30 p.m. Please RSVP online. For more information or accommodations, please contact Danille Hoffer at dhoffer@sfsu.edu.
The Office of Emergency Services will host a Neighborhood Emergency Response Team (NERT) training on April 4 and April 5. The training will be two full days, 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m., and you must be present in person on both days in order to get NERT certified. If your certification expired March 2020 or after and you need to be recertified, then you will only need to join on April 5 tentatively 11 a.m. – 4.30 p.m. This training will be held in the Annex 1 event space.
Please reach out to oes@sfsu.edu with any questions you may have. For information about this program visit the San Francisco Fire Department website.
The Division of Graduate Studies & Career Development is excited to share two additional opportunities for students to present their innovative and creative work with the broader SF State academic community, win prizes and build their résumé or curriculum vitae.
Grad Slam is a competition for the best short research presentation by a graduate student. Presenters will be judged on how well they engage the non-specialist audience, how clearly they communicate key concepts and how effectively they focus and present their ideas — all in three minutes or less. The event will be held from 2 to 4 p.m. Thursday, April 6, via Zoom. The registration deadline is 11:59 p.m. Wednesday, March 29. Students can register via Qualtrics.
The Graduate Research and Creative Works Showcase is an annual exhibition of the diverse work of SF State’s innovative and talented graduate students. Student presentations are typically in the form of a poster display that depicts the purpose, design, methods and results of their research or creative project. Registered students are eligible to win prizes like gift cards. All undergraduate and graduate students are encouraged to attend this event. This year the Graduate Research and Creative Works Showcase will be held live at the Mashouf Wellness Center from 2 to 5 p.m. Wednesday, April 12. The registration deadline is 11:59 p.m. Tuesday, April 5. Students can register via Qualtrics.
The Division of Graduate Studies & Career Development requests that faculty and the academic advising communities help recruit graduate student participants. For questions, please contact gradstudies@sfsu.edu.
The Division of Graduate Studies & Career Development thanks you in advance for your support!
The campus community is invited to join a free Parenting Session from 1 – 2 p.m. Wednesday, April 12, via Zoom. There is so much to learn when becoming a parent. Children experience so many changes between birth and adolescence. This session will cover:
- What to expect — infants to adolescents
- Setting and enforcing family rules
- Positive approaches to disciplining your child
- Taking care of yourself
This presentation is brought to you by Human Resources in collaboration with LifeMatters, which is part of the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) you receive with your SF State benefits.
Professor Emeritus of Urban Studies and Economics Norm Schneider passed away Monday, January 23, in Healdsburg, California. Schneider taught at SF State for 33 years, retiring in 2001. He received his Ph.D. in Economics from UC Berkeley. In addition to SF State, Schneider taught at UC Davis and Williams College. His obituary was published March 16 by Berkeleyside.
SF State Spotlight
As part of International Women’s History Month, San Francisco Business and Professional Women Inc. presented a panel discussion on March 18 with “Unsung Sheroes”: Africana Studies Professor Dorothy Tsuruta, Veronica Hunnicutt and Cheryl Thornton. The event, held on Zoom, is titled “The Power of African American Studies: A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste.”
Academic counselors Tara Boehm, Diana Castro and Riri Shibata (along with former staff member Arman Liwanag) from the Undergraduate Advising Center presented at the National Academic Advising Association regional conference on March 1 in Las Vegas.
Their presentation, “Reframing the Narrative: Advising First-Generation College Students,” highlights the skills, knowledge and networks that contribute to first-generation students’ ability to navigate and persist through barriers in higher education. By removing the deficit lens from which first-generation students are often viewed, the presentation showcases a model of community cultural wealth that serves as an impactful, culturally responsive approach to supporting first-generation students.
A March 17 story in the San Francisco Business Times highlights the Gilead Foundation’s newly announced $3.5 million donation to SF State. The donation provides research equipment and student support at SF State’s Science and Engineering Innovation Center, a new 125,000-square-foot building under construction.
Gilead Foundation Executive Director Kate Wilson toured the current College of Science & Engineering facilities with Dean Carmen Domingo in November.
“Under Dean Domingo’s leadership, we’re confident that our grant funds would truly make an impact on not only education but also education equity. We can build the pipeline of the STEM workforce,” Wilson said. “(The gift) was in many ways a no-brainer.”
Psychology Professor Ezequiel Morsella and three student researchers published an article in the journal Acta Psychologica, making it the 100th publication from Morsella’s lab. The study, titled “Involuntary refreshing of mental representations,” suggests mental representations (such as mental imagery) from certain processes can occur and even be reactivated, as occurs in mental rehearsal, involuntarily. The findings also provide new understanding of the reflexive imagery task (RIT), which is used to systematically study involuntary effects.
Qamar publishes open-access article on diversity, equity, inclusion in Journal of Critical Dietetics
Assistant Professor of Nutrition and Dietetics Zubaida Qamar and collaborators published their work in an open-access article, “#InclusiveDietetics: A social media campaign improves beliefs associated with racial and ethnic diversity, equity and inclusion in the dietetics profession” in the Journal of Critical Dietetics. The authors elaborate on their findings from a study involving a social media intervention to understand knowledge, experiences and actions related to diversity, equity and inclusion in the field of dietetics. The results shed light on the experiences and beliefs of nutrition and dietetics professionals and provide insight into improving diversity, equity and inclusion in the field.
A March 20 story in the San Francisco Chronicle explores the controversies around the implementation of ethnic studies courses at public high schools throughout California. A new state law requires one semester of ethnic studies, beginning with the high school class of 2030.
The story cites a 2022 article in Convergence Magazine written by Asian American Studies Professor Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales and others.
“Lawmakers in 42 states have introduced legislation that requires educators to lie to their students about the role of colonialism, white supremacy and patriarchy in the history of the United States,” they wrote in Convergence. “To achieve racial justice, we must teach about racial injustice — and about the resistance and social movements that have combated these acts of violence for generations.”
Upon the 20th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, KQED on March 15 featured a story about Bay Area poets who are keeping memories of the country alive, including graduate student and Iraqi native Zêdan Xelef and Center for Iranian Diaspora Studies Director Persis Karim.
“All of these memory deposits that were attacked — my work is concerned with memory,” Xelef said. “Memory of the land, memory of the people, and my personal memory.”
Karim helped organize a recent poetry reading in Berkeley to commemorate the March 5, 2007, car bombing on Baghdad’s historic Al-Mutanabbi Street, known as the street of the booksellers.
“This was more than just a car bombing in a place where we were involved in a war,” said Karim, who holds the Neda Nobari Distinguished Chair. “It was an attack on culture, an attack on ideas, an attack on freedom of speech, and it represented the sort of the worst aspects of what happens in war and occupation and invasions by other countries.”
The Paul K. Longmore Institute on Disability’s traveling exhibition “Patient No More: People with Disabilities Securing Civil Rights” is on display at the Park City Museum in Park City, Utah, through April 16. Emily Beitiks, interim director of the Longmore Institute, will deliver a lecture about the exhibition Wednesday, March 29.
For this Passover, Trader Joe’s has introduced a store brand of matzah. A buzz is building among those who observe the Jewish holiday and among devoted fans of the grocery store chain, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported March 22.
Jewish Studies Associate Professor Rachel B. Gross notes the new private label indicates the company takes its kosher-keeping customers seriously.
“My understanding is that they’ve never wanted to do everything,” said Gross, who is the John and Marcia Goldman Professor of American Jewish Studies. “But they have had a really strong kosher game because that worked really well with the way they approached the niche markets in general.”