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Reversing EO 1100: A Community Stands Up to Maintain Marginalized Voices in the Curriculum

in The Word is Text/Videos by

by Eduardo Sanchez

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On the week of October 23 through the 26, CSUN students and faculty organized a week of action to raise awareness of Executive Order 1100 to the community and to exclaim their outrage and distrust of both the order and the CSU Chancellor. Executive Order 1100, if implemented, would eliminate section F of CSUN’s graduation requirements, the section in which ethnic and comparative culture learning is located. By eliminating section F, it eliminates cultural learning classes as a requirement for graduation. We the students and faculty were not going to stand by and allow this to happen. So we took action.

The slogan for the week of action was Unnatural Disasters on CSUN. This is to stand for the disaster that is erupting on campus by the order. On Monday, October 23, we held, the Wildfire. This day was meant for people to spread the word out to as many people as possible to get others aware of the order and it disastrous effects on the campus and community. On Tuesday, October 24, we held a day named Evacuate. On this day, all students and staff were to reframe from buying anything on campus in order to reframe from financially support an administration that might agree to implementing the order. Instead, students and clubs held food stands where they sold food for their club, some stands and organizations even gave out free food to students who were hungry.

On Wednesday, October 25, the action taken was named The Flood. On this day, students and faculty members were encouraged to walk out of their classrooms and meetings and organize a demonstration on campus from 11:00am – 1:00pm. It is being said that over 300 people took part of the demonstration. On Thursday October 26, the action taken was called “The Quake.” This was the final day of the week of action. The students and faculty members gathered and marched to the faculty senate meeting which had to be moved from the Library to a room in the Grand Salon in order to fit all the expected people to arrive. The overwhelming number of people that showed up, eventually helped convince the senate to stand with the students and faculty and oppose the order.

The meeting took longer than expected because of the number of people there. Many students and faculty wanted to speak and express their thoughts and concerns to the room, but especially to the senate. The faculty senate agreed to allow all those who wanted to speak a chance to talk. After voting on opposing the order, the senate had to agree on a write up of what they would send to the Chancellors office for why we are opposing the order. This took longer than expected but eventually we came to an agreement nearly an hour after the meeting was scheduled to finish. The student leaders involved in organizing the week of action and spreading the word on EO1100 were overwhelmed with joy and feelings of satisfaction for having pulled off this great action. We are all, however, very hesitant and awaiting for this to officially become a part of CSUN’s constitution.

Since the meeting took place, President Diane Harrison has vocalized her position with the students and favoring keeping cultural studies. This is mainly due to the pressure she felt coming from the student body and its mobility against the order. The student leaders from the week of action have since then helped to organize a student task force to stand next to the faculty senate and help aid in the implementation of policies which affect students. This is so that students within ethnic studies departments can have a say in the policies that are placed that affect their future and the future of all other comparative studies students. On November 8th, student leaders and faculty made their way to the Board of Trustees meeting where they voiced their opinions on the order. Dr. Loren Blanchard, one of the members in the board, stated that “intentionally or unintentionally, there was no motive in EO 1100 to diminish cross-cultural studies on any campus.” He further stated that EO 1100 was moving forward no matter what in 2018. And, that “campuses have been offered the opportunity to ask for more time on the implementation of EO 1100.” This is basically disregarding the voices of the students and faculty and our stance against the order. He basically is saying that no matter what w do or say, this order will be implemented eventually. The future is uncertain and more student and faculty meetings are to take place in order to map out our next steps. Our student’s continued activism is CSUN’s main hope in defeating racist oppressive people like those in the Board of Trustees and those in Sacramento along side the Chancellor.

Remittances Are Being Targeted by Administration

in The Word is Text/Videos by

by Gustavo Muro

2015 Remittence Flow by Gustavo Muro

Creating a map that show the estimated amount of remittances sent out from the US into other countries during the year of 2015, provides us with a clear understanding of the amount of monies sent from immigrants in the US. Utilizing data from the World Bank, I was able to cluster together received remittance totals by separated by continent.

The current regime in Washington DC proposes a tax on remittances to build a symbol of division in the form of a wall is an insult to citizens of Mexican culture. If a tax is levied from such a proposal, the backlash would affect immigrants and US citizens.

Honestly, the tax would be unjust for the simple fact the tax would disproportionately affect the working class.

In 2008 the top three countries receiving remittances were number one India, second China, and third Mexico. According to The World Bank, The average value of a single remittance to Mexico was between $340-$350 US dollars in 2007. An interesting observation is that increase in remittances have been seen to correlate with reduced homicide rates in the country that is — for every 1% increase in households receiving remittances in Mexico there is a 0.05% decrease in the homicide rate. Lowering the costs of sending remittances to other countries including Mexico would help fight poverty as well as being an effective method to reduce the organized crime rate according to a study from the ‘Inter-American Development Bank’.

The Trump administration has threatened Mexico with taxing remittances sent from the US to assist in funding for Trump’s proposed border wall. It would be counter-intuitive to de-rail efforts of Mexican and US officials who have been working to make money flows between the two neighboring countries more transparent. If remittances were to become taxed then senders of remittances may consider the use of other methods of sending money, such as physically smuggling it across border lines. Some have even suggested Mexicans might turn to a currency transfer medium such as ‘Bit Coin’ among others which is an online currency that eliminates banks and fees to transmit currency.a

A survey by Inter-American Dialogue of remittances to Mexico found that a majority, 67 percent in 2013, were sent by “undocumented” individuals living in the U.S.

Data gathered by the Mexican government and BBVA Research shows that in 2015, nearly one-third (29.6 percent) of all of the remittances sent from the U.S. to Mexico originated in California. Just over 14 percent was sent from Texas, and 5.1 percent from Illinois.

In 2015, remittances sent to Mexico totaled 2.3 percent of the country’s GDP, the data showed.

Forbes reported that the money sent from the U.S. to Mexico by migrants “replaced oil revenues as Mexico’s number one source of foreign income” in late 2015.

Mexico has relied upon immigrants to maintain families, communities, and in many cases municipalities.

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