Cal State LA Segregated Housing Program Aims To Prevent 'Racial Attacks' And 'Microaggressions'

Black students at California State University, Los Angeles are being offered segregated housing options in effort to prevent “microaggressions” and “racially insensitive remarks,” the school announced Tuesday.

The decision comes nine months after the Black Student Union issued a set of demands for change to university officials, citing the frequent “racists attacks” faced by black students on campus. On Tuesday, CUSLA spokesman Robert Lopez told College Fix that among many of the requests made by the BSU, the college will create a segregated housing program, which will focus on “academic excellence and learning experiences that are inclusive and non-discriminatory.”

The new living arrangement option for black students has already been listed on CSULA’s Housing Services webpage, describing the black living-learning community as an effort to “enhance the residential experience for students who are a part of or interested in issues of concern to the black community living on campus by offering the opportunity to connect with faculty and peers, and engage in programs that focus on academic success, cultural awareness, and civic engagement.”

The program has been named the Halisi Scholars Black Living-Learning Community after the late Dr. CRD Halisi, an African studies scholar.

The university has 192 apartment units in a residential complex on campus where Halisi will be located. Lopez refrained from detailing how many of the apartments will be dedicated to segregated housing.

Although the housing option is specific to black students on campus, it is open and available for all university attendees given they follow the Halisi housing rules to “respect the differences of others that live in my community and look for positive things to learn from them,” “be an advocate for change if the tools are resources available are deemed inadequate” and “accept that I am still learning and need to be open to new ideas and experiences.”

While it is unclear how many others of the 14 demands listed in BSU’s initial letter to CSLA were acknowledged, the group called their segregated housing decree a “long overdue, but well deserved achievement.”

CSULA is the fourth university to participate in segregated housing programs, following University of Connecticut, University of California, Davis and the University of California, Berkeley.