Fifty years after 12 black students took over UC Santa Barbara’s North Hall to demand change on campus, the Black Student Union met with UCSB administrators to submit a list of demands not all that different from the students' five decades before them. On February 9, the BSU team sent a follow up email to the UC Regents after having presented their demands to Chancellor Henry Yang. The students iterated their demands and informed the Board of Regents about what they described as an anti-black incident that occurred before the regents joined the meeting.
In the email, students claimed that Assistant Vice Chancellor Maria Herrera-Sobek made comments about a former black administrator’s work, claiming that the administrator “did not have much involvement with ‘Hispanic students’ and that it was because of the perceived ‘focus’ on Black students.” Students also wrote that Herrera-Sobek “continued to belittle the struggle of Black UCSB students and Black people by … claiming that ‘we are all African’.” The BSU Demands team continued, “[I]t was troublesome for us to hear an administrator whose position is explicitly and solely dedicated to diversity and equity on campus use such apparent anti-Black rhetoric.”
Herrera-Sobek responded to a request for comment with a statement: “I have already communicated to the students that I deeply regret the remarks that caused them discomfort and made them feel marginalized. I expressed my hope to have the opportunity for further dialogue with the students and to continue to find ways for my office and the university to support their needs and to address their pressing concerns.”