Cerritos College Students Seek Academic Diversity : Education: A coalition says that a mostly white faculty and a lack of ethnic studies are part of failure to reflect student population.

Cerritos College administrators are under pressure from a coalition of students to hire more minority faculty members and to add more ethnic courses to the curriculum.

The students said they are concerned that the faculty is predominantly white, while more than two-thirds of the 18,966 students on the Norwalk-based campus are minorities.

“We want a more diverse staff that reflects the ethnic makeup of the students,” student Harriet Adams said Tuesday during a meeting of the seven-member Board of Trustees. Student John Townsend asked the board to set up a committee to develop a program of ethnic studies at the college.

Students discussed their concerns with some faculty members during a forum on the issue earlier Tuesday, and previously outlined their demands in a petition bearing 250 signatures.

Trustees said they were committed to increasing the number of minority faculty members, but the proposal to develop a separate program of ethnic studies apparently was not as well received.

At the conclusion of the board meeting, Trustee Ruth Banda read a brief statement saying the board was committed to increasing the number of minority faculty members. Of the 238 full-time faculty members, 16% are minority, according to college spokesman Mark Wallace. Community colleges will be required by state law to increase minority faculty to 30% by next year, and Cerritos hopes to exceed that requirement, Banda said.

But the trustees’ statement did not respond to the students’ demand for an ethnic studies program. And President Ernest Martinez later indicated that he would prefer to emphasize a curriculum that includes ethnic components in every course, rather than establishing a separate program of ethnic studies.

“My concept of ethnicity is that each and every class, whether it is literature or physical education, has some ethnic diversity,” Martinez said.

The student push for more minority faculty members and ethnic courses apparently surfaced after a black history instructor, who has been teaching part time, applied for a full-time position but was not among the applicants initially selected for interviews.

Martinez said no one has been hired. He said that he has asked administrators to consider a wider selection of candidates.

Student Faye Prudholme said students were upset when David Horne, who teaches a popular class on African-American history, was not given an interview for a full-time position teaching history.

“They hire a lot of minorities as part-time instructors, but they do not get permanent jobs,” Prudholme said.

In researching the issue, students also found that a number of other community colleges, including Long Beach City College and Rio Hondo, offer ethnic studies, Prudholme said.

During the forum on the issue, faculty members told the students that the staff reflected the community when the college was first formed 35 years ago.

“We do not have much faculty turnover. People are staying on the job,” history professor Howard Taslitz said.

Prof. Richard McGrath, who has taught administrative justice at the college for more than 30 years, pointed out that many faculty members have taught at Cerritos for more than 20 years.

But his observations failed to persuade student Tammi Graham. “The college is practicing academic apartheid,” she insisted.