Following a complaint filed by a civil rights group, leaders at San Diego State University voted to stop requiring faculty to include land acknowledgment of the Kumeyaay in course syllabi.
An unidentified faculty member at San Diego State University (SDSU) filed a complaint to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), a Philadelphia-based non-partisan and non-profit civil liberties group.
The group claimed the policy violated the First Amendment rights of teachers. With the university’s vote, SDSU’s faculty will have the option to include a land acknowledgment that expresses respect for the Kumeyaay and recognizes the occupation of ancestral land.
The majority of central, southern, and east San Diego County is Kumeyaay territory, including SDSU, University of California, San Diego, and Southwestern College and in Chula Vista, which currently has land acknowledgments at both institutions.
Last year, Southwestern college began to read “land acknowledgment” before all public meetings that admit that each of the school’s five campuses sits on Kumeyaay land. The college’s board approved a measure in December that grants members of the Kumeyaay tribes to be first in line to use event spaces.
“It has been a conscientious, political act by the Governing Board to recognize the nearly 500 years of demonstrated resilience and resistance to the actions taken by colonizers to separate the Kumeyaay people from their land, culture, and one another,” said Southwestern College Governing Board President Leticia Cazares.
“We knew we wanted to do more,” Cazares said. “This land belongs to the Kumeyaay Nation, and we are grateful to share all the opportunities Southwestern College offers."
The Kumeyaay nation includes 13 federally recognized tribes within San Diego County, including the: Barona, Campo, Capitan Grande, Cuyapaipe, Inaja, Jamul Indian Village of California, La Posta, Manzanita, Mesa Grande, San Pasqual, Santa Ysabel, Viejas, and Sycuan tribes, each of which manages their own sovereign tribal governments and lands. All Southwestern College campuses are on Kumeyaay land.
San Diego State University unanimously approved a resolution on Sept. 3, 2019, that formally acknowledges that the university occupies the land that has been home to the Kumeyaay people for more than 10,000 years.
The acknowledgment was Written by Michael Connolly Miskwish, a Kumeyaay historian, researcher, and assistant professor of American Indian Studies at SDSU. It was an initiative of Miskwish’s department and the full and abbreviated versions of the acknowledgment are available online.
Instructors at SDSU include several requirements in their syllabi, including the instructor name, course information, office, and contact information, grading policies, student learning outcomes, and course design details.
