Date: May 25, 2010

To: Chancellor Blumenthal

From: Renya Ramirez (CAAD member, American Studies, Associate Professor).

Bettina Aptheker (Feminist Studies, Professor),

Amy Lonetree (American Studies, Assistant Professor),

Carla Freccero (Chair, CAAD, Literature, Professor),

Raquel Prado (CAAD member, Applied Mathematics and Statistics, Assoc. Professor),

Pradip Mascharak (CAAD member, Chemistry, Professor),

Steve Knipp (Chair, National Education Association, American Indian Caucus),

Simón Sedillo (Community Rights Defense Organizer),

Nicholas Hartlep (AERA, Fellow at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee),

Colin Hampson (Stanford Law School alumni and tribal lawyer),

Winona Simms (Stanford, Associate Dean and Director American Indian/Alaska Native/Native Hawaiian Program/Native American Cultural Center),

Marta Frausto (California Otomi Coordination Project),

Janeen Antoine (Director, American Indian Contemporary Arts),

Michael Duran (Counseling Director, Indian Health of SCV, UCSC alumni),

Laverne Roberts (President, American Indian Alliance of Silicon Valley),

Micah McNeil (UCSC Native Alumni, SANAI Co-founder)

Mirasol Ramirez (UCSC Alummi, AIRC Co-founder),

Andrea Smith (UCSC Alumni, AIRC Co-founder, Media and Cultural Studies),

Irene Vasquez (UCSC Alumni, SANAI Hunger-striker),

Lela Cast (UCSC Native Parent, AIRC)

Tomas Alejo (Sociology, AIRC intern, Undergraduate),

Amalia Coronado (Language Studies, AIRC intern, undergraduate),

Cristal Olivas (LALS, undergraduate, AIRC),

Madana Cast (Health Sciences, AIRC intern, undergraduate student),

Juan Ramirez (American Studies, AIRC, undergraduate),

Soma De Boubon (History of Consciousness, AIRC, graduate student),

Chris Cuadrado (undergraduate, El Centro Intern),

Esmirna Perez (Community Studies, UCSC alumni),

Pablo Viramontes (UCSC alumni, former SANAI member, AIRC volunteer),

Noah Tamarkin (Anthropology graduate student),

Cynthia Dorantes (UCSC undergraduate student)

Andrew Coppens (Psychology, graduate student),

Alexander Hirsch (Politics, graduate student),

Aimee Garza (Anthropology, graduate student),

Edward Noel Smythe (History, graduate student),

Stephen Wiard (American Studies, Politics, undergraduate student),

Miye Tom (University of Coimbra, Portugal, doctoral candidate, UCSC Native alumni), Kirsten Moore (Health Sciences, undergraduate student),

Katya Adachi (UCSF Native Medical student),

Lisa Rofel (Professor, Department Chair, Anthropology),

James Clifford (History of Consciousness, Professor),

Lisbeth Haas (History, Professor),

Rob Wilson (Professor, Literature),

Judith Habicht-Mauche (Professor, Anthropology),

Mark Anderson (Anthropology, Assistant Professor),

Melissa Caldwell (Anthropology, Associate Professor),

Michelle Erai (UC Riverside, UC Office of the President, postdoctoral fellow),

Daniel Guevara (Associate Professor, Philosophy)

Shelley Streeby (UCSD, Literature, Professor),

Lori Liawa (UCD, Native grad student)

Araehana Sharma (Wesleyan University, Anthropology, Associate Professor)

Kathleen Coll (Stanford Lecturer, Anthropology, Feminist Studies)

Sarah Cerdenak (Assistant Professor, African American Studies, UNC, Greensboro)

Joo Kim (UCSD graduate student, Literature)

Jon Daehnke (Stanford Humanities Post-Doctoral Fellow)

Mark Francis (Nebraska Accountant)

Curtis Marez (UCSD, American Quarterly Editor, Ethnic Studies, Associate Professor),

Inez Hernandez-Avila (UCD, Professor, Native American Studies),

Deborah Miranda (Chumash/Esselen, Washington and Lee College, Associate Professor), and Robin Butterfield (Native American educator).

We as the UCSC Native American community, including Native students, and faculty, and our allies, are concerned about the “Managing Director, Resource Centers” position recently posted. The American Indian Resource Center Director will be expected to manage the American Indian Resource Center along with five other Resource Centers. This position gives the American Indian Resource Center 50% less staff time than other Resource Centers, and therefore is inequitable. This is especially difficult when there are so very few resources available for Native students. Indeed, a Managing Director of Resource Centers position is redundant. Lastly, Native faculty and students were not officially or broadly consulted in the development of this position. In the following, the major concerns will be discussed in more detail.

1)Reducing the American Indian Resource Director position to a 50% position is an inequitable use of resources as compared to the other racial groups, including African Americans, Asian Americans, and Latinos. This decrease of 50% in staff time is inequitable and unfair.

2)As a Native American community on campus, we have very few resources allocated for Native students. Other groups on campus have multiple areas of support and resources, including staff in EOP, research centers, events, and courses that are relevant to their communities’ needs. The American Indian Resource Center is one of the few culturally relevant sites available to them. Indeed, the American Indian Resource Director must act in a central role, because there are so few resources on this campus for Native American students. Hiring an American Indian Resource Director who must also manage five other centers will be an extremely difficult job, and Native students can very easily be lost in the shuffle.

3)This position, some argue, is an efficient use of resources, since it “doubles up positions.” However, adding another layer of administration to manage the Resource Centers, duplicates the duties of other positions, and is therefore redundant.

4)Native American students and faculty were not formally or broadly consulted in the development of this job description. Because of the administration’s top down nature of the job description’s development, it is similar to the paternalism used by the Bureau of Indian Affairs in working with Native Americans. Indeed, we have heard that the establishment of this position is “honoring” the Indigenous people of the area. “Honoring” is about respect and working in collaboration. It is not about paternalism.

The UCSC Native American community needs an American Indian Resource Center Director who can devote 100 percent time of his or her time to the Native students. We as the Native American community, including Native faculty and students, hope to work in collaboration with administration in the future in order to develop a job description and serve on the hiring committee to hire an American Indian Resource Director that focuses all of his or her time to fulfill our Native students’ needs. We as members of the Native American community at UCSC would like to meet with you, Chancellor Blumenthal, to discuss this very important issue.