CLS Snobbery

I was offended by the academic snobbery and the exclusiveness of the Chicano Latino Studies department at the 40th anniversary of the CLS program this past Thursday. A speaker called Arizona’s S. B. 1070 law racist, discriminatory and fascist. This was professed without any challenge from the intellectuals in the audience and without providing context or understanding of a law that mirrors current federal law under President Obama. I was not surprised that such a view came from a liberal academic such as Dr. Jose Luis Alanson addressing his peers.

Another example of snobbery came when an individual asked a question without identifying himself. The academics present laughed at him. This was disrespectful and establishes intellectual snobbery on campus. The exclusiveness of the CLS department has been furthered in the lack of recognition of other Latino cultures that make up Latin America as a whole. The CLS department has an exclusive focus on the Mexican culture. This has been my experience since graduating in 2005 in CLS and participating in the Latino Commencement Ceremonies since then.

I don’t think that the CLS faculty understands that by perpetuating such dominance, they demonstrate arrogance and rob individuals who are not Mexican, like myself, of their cultural ethnic pride. I can proudly say that I am from El Salvador, San Salvador and Chicano raised. Perhaps the CLS department’s academic arrogance puts their MEXICAN culture before AMERICAN pride as a whole.

William Flores-Lemus,
Counseling

Car theft lies

I read the article titled “Campus car theft persists,” which I found to be an absolute lie. The reason I say this is because the incident that occurred to Fresno State student, Ben Ingersoll, occurred off campus not on campus; to be more exact, it occurred on the premises of the Plaza Apartments, which are located by Fresno State but not on the campus.

I do understand that the University Police has a jurisdiction that covers the radius of one mile around Fresno State, but that does not mean that the crimes that occur within that mile can be classified as crimes committed on campus. If it was so, than we should consider the rapes, burglaries and murders that occur within that mile as Fresno State crimes, right?

I ask of you to please stop making false statements about crimes occurring at Fresno State.

As Senator of Parking and Safety, I have committed myself to see that Fresno State becomes a safe and crime-free campus, and therefore will not allow false crimes to be connected to Fresno State without consequences or a rebuttal.

My recommendations to you, as the Editor, are to set your facts straight, do not lure in readers by making false claims and do not write stories that have a “conflict of interest” as this story does for the fact that Ben Ingersoll is the sports editor.

Oscar Perez,
ASI Senator of Parking & Safety