On behalf of the California State University and the CSU Dominguez Hills campus community, I am pleased and proud to host the CSU's first biennial Juneteenth Symposium. The Dominguez Hills campus has long been a place where issues of race, culture, historic struggle and Black excellence are topics of critical discourse and analysis. I invite all members of the CSU community, our friends in higher education and strategic community partners to join us June 15-16, 2022, as we expand upon this important discourse and set the standard for future symposia.
Together, we celebrate Juneteenth – and the Black community's delayed but ultimate freedom from slavery. But if our grand event is to have real meaning, I encourage all of us to translate our inspiration into action and collectively:
- Interrogate and defuse the biases and assumptions people bring with them into academic spaces;
- Develop new, substantive programs across the CSU specifically and higher education in general that demonstrate our commitment to the true needs of students, staff, faculty and administrators of African descent; and
- Examine and transform the policies and practices that inhibit rather than facilitate Black excellence.
An authentic Juneteenth recognition and celebration of Black excellence demand this level of intentionality, and we are poised and ready to deliver on that promise. Join us!
Thomas A. Parham, Ph.D., President
California State University, Dominguez Hills