Students, faculty, and community members gathered in California State University, Chico’s Selvester’s Café February 26 for a #BlackLivesMatter rally to commemorate lives lost. The rally gave those who attended the opportunity to share their opinions on how the movement is affecting people nationally and locally.

Those involved with Black Lives Matter seek to gain recognition of the premature deaths of African Americans throughout the country, including those close to home.

The council consists of students, staff, and faculty who work toward these goals. Frank Li, director of the Office of International Education, serves on the council and describes it as a group advocating for total inclusivity.

“We cannot do this individually; it takes all of us.”

Selvester’s Café was packed to capacity. Members of the Chico community were sitting on the floor and standing all around the sides of the room. Some performers recited original poetry pieces depicting black women and men as queens and kings. Others performed songs acapella; both by artist speaking about the plight of black youth and original pieces that spoke to empower and uplift black people.

Though the rally was filled with a lot of creativity, the main reason for its importance never left the minds of those attending. Much of the rally focused on Marc Thompson, a former Chico student whose body was found in his burning Ford Taurus 25 miles northeast of Oroville September 3, 2014. While attending Chico State, Thompson served as the commissioner of the Multicultural Diversity Council, a member of the Black Leadership Academy, and took part in many diversity-related activities on Chico State’s campus.

Student Advocates during poster-making session.

Krystle Tonga, a Cross Cultural Leadership Center (CCLC) staff member, said that if she could say anything to Thompson, it would be “sorry.”

“I would say sorry for the fact we didn’t respond the way we should have when his life was taken,” Tonga said.

Egypt Howard, assistant program coordinator at the CCLC, told attendees that in order for there to be a change within the community, they must come together as a whole and determine what they want.

“We cannot do this individually; it takes all of us,” Howard said. “People try to pretend like here in Chico it’s not affecting us, but if that were true, Marc would be here on this microphone right now.”

“I think it has the potential to be the human rights movement of our time,” she said.

Butts finds it interesting that many people see the community of Chico and think that miscommunication or a lack of trust between the community and the police is not a concern. But it is.

Students performing during the Black Lives Matter Rally.

Chico Police Department Chief Mike O’Brien and Chico State’s University Police Chief John Feeney are attempting to keep an open dialogue between the community and its law enforcement.

“We have a great responsibility, being in law enforcement, to either be better or be a detriment to a community,” O’Brien said. “If we’re not reaching out and not having tough conversations, we’re not doing our job.”

Feeney also attended the #BlackLivesMatter rally in order to better understand the black perspective.

“Before I went to that event, I was like ‘but all lives mater,’” Feeney said. “Then I got a new perspective and understanding hearing from the members of our campus community. I can’t see through an African American person’s lens. … They own their perspective.”

Students have expressed safety concerns to O’Brien and Feeney over incidents that still occur on campus, such as hate speech or swastikas being engraved into faculty doors.

Both police chiefs replied that they take these incidents very seriously, but have yet to really encounter them in their short time they have been in their positions.

“It’s not always illegal to be a jackass,” O’Brien said. “When it crosses that line into illegality, we can take some action. Like John [Feeney] said, as leaders we can help set the environment so that, at least from a legal-illegal standpoint, we can address those very vigorously and appropriately.”

Travon Robinson, director of University Diversity Programs and Inclusion, said that he believes that if the community asked officers to come to meetings and events to build relationships, the police would be receptive.

University Police Chief John Feeney gained a new perspective during the rally.

The police chiefs hope to foster relationships with the community by having conversations that create a spirit openness and trust. They are finding ways to attend meetings and conversations about the community, but it is definitely important that students and community members work on extending that olive branch and building those bridges as well.

If any students have concerns regarding their safety or the overall safety of the community, Feeney urges them to join the Police Community Advisory Board, which meets the third Wednesday of every month at the Seventh Day Adventist Church on Hooker Oak Avenue. Contact Feeney at jjfeeney@csuchico.edu with any questions.

In the basement of the Bell Memorial Union in room 004, there’s laughter, colorful posters, and a number of smiling faces. It’s also where you can find eliza dyer, Severiano “Seve” Christian, and other passionate students advocating for the rights that everyone deserves.

Chico State’s Gender and Sexuality Equity Center (GSEC) has recently developed a trans program*, which strives to empower all gender identities through education and community.

As director of GSEC, dyer was in charge of the advocacy for the new trans program in her two and a half years with the organization. She believes the program is essential in order to create more visibility for the trans population and to educate those who are not trans.

“I think it is one of the most underserved populations, it is one of the populations that is facing multiple barriers at every different point of their interaction with the university and campus,” dyer said. “It’s a great opportunity to reach the wider Chico population.”

There are misconceptions of the transitioning process, including the idea that being trans is only about suffering. dyer knows the balance of education and appreciation within the new program will help start conversations about the positive things that are not talked about.

Seve Christian hopes to make the new trans program on campus more visible.

“One of the benefits of this expansion is that there’s the celebration of the different ways to perform gender,” dyer said, “and recognizing that diversity and richness of gender is really freeing for trans people and non-trans people.”

Christian, the Trans Program Coordinator, is currently a junior and began working with GSEC as an intern in spring 2015. Christian, who identifies as queer and non-binary using they/them pronouns, thinks it’s important to make the new program more visible in order for students to know GSEC offers a wide range of resources for all communities.

“Making our program visible is important in order for people to know that they can come to GSEC and see that it is not just gay rights-centric,” Christian said. “There are multiple facets we’ve been ignoring and this is the time that we need to acknowledge it.”

Christian believes one of the biggest misunderstandings associated with the trans community is “medicalizing” others’ identities. One doesn’t have to undergo hormone-replacement therapy or do any affirming surgery to be living in an authentic gender identity. And with recent crimes across the nation within the trans community, they also want to show how disproportionately people, especially trans women of color, are being affected by murders every year.

eliza dyer believes that the trans population is one of the most underserved populations.

“All of the women within this community that have been murdered this year were all women of color,” Christian said. “We need to show why this is a problem and how trans issues don’t only affect trans people, they affect everyone else.”

A recent veto on a South Dakota bill that would’ve required transgender students in the state’s public schools to use the bathrooms that matched their sex at birth brings this idea that trans folk are deviant and don’t deserve to use the bathroom, said Christian. By having this program in place, and having discussions on these topics, they hope to create a ripple effect in solving these problems.

“I think I’ve realized people are starting to care about these issues, and that we really need to capitalize on it,” Christian said. “In order to beat the system, we need to work with it and meet people halfway to show that trans people and trans lives matter. We need to make sure we’re proposing equitable solutions to the policies that we’re making, and making sure it’s a cohesive thing. By being visible, I hope we provide that outlet.”

“We need to show why this is a problem and how trans issues don’t only affect trans people, they affect everyone else.”

Campus internationalization is defined by Chico State’s study abroad office as “the process of further integrating an international and intercultural dimension into the teaching, research, and service functions of the institution,” meaning that there are more opportunities to create richer learning experiences to produce global citizens, from which all students can benefit.

Chico State has a variety of International Students.

College campuses can provide various policies, programs and resources to students to support a globally inclined education, including

• A clear commitment to internationalization
• Course requirements with global components
• Faculty guidelines for international engagement
• Student mobility for both U.S. students and international students through partnerships

All of those items are currently in place at Chico State, and the campus continues to develop them.

One of the most recognizable forces of internationalization on Chico State’s campus is the growing reach of the Study Abroad office. Chico State sent over 400 students abroad during the 2014-2015 academic year, making the university No. 4 in the nation for the number of students sent abroad for a full academic year or longer. The campus is also recognized as the No. 1 institution in the nation for sending participants in the University Studies Abroad Consortium for the 2014-2015 academic year.

Kelsey Belli believes that students can get new perspectives abroad.

“Traveling makes you more self-aware and you get a new perspective on your role in the world and how it’s not all centered on yourself,” said Kelsey Belli, second-year international relations student.

International students account for 3.6 percent of students enrolled at Chico State, and they come from more than 40 countries as both undergraduate and graduate students. These students contribute to internationalization by bringing new cultures and perspectives to campus.

“Our university is not saturated with international students, that means the international students have more opportunities to talk to local students and experience the more American life,” said Yuzhuo "Snow" Sun, a communication studies graduate student from China. “That’s why international students come to America for their education. They want to know both the language and culture, so Chico is definitely a better place compared to other universities.”

Sun is a Chinese graduate student at Chico State.

International students have a strong support system available to them on campus. Free English as a second language tutoring is available to help with reading comprehension, writing, grammar, and pronunciation. Plus, students have the support of the American Language and Culture Institute staff, International Student and Scholar Services and staff and students in the Study Abroad office.

“We’re very good at making them feel welcome, and I think in general, people in Chico are friendly and welcoming,” said Cindy McKay, Coordinator of International Student and Scholar Services.

One way for the campus to continue to support the experience of international students is by providing outreach to get them more involved in campus clubs and activities. International students want to become more familiar with Americans and the local culture in order to get a more authentic experience.

McKay also suggested that the lack of interaction between international and American students is because of initial shyness from both sides and social pressures to stay around people who have similar experiences. This could be due to the average student’s unfamiliarity with international students or their cultures, which is why global and cultural education on campus is so important.

Cindy McKay works closely with International Students.

Chico State offers majors, minors and pathways in international studies, which emphasize different cultures. The Department of International Languages, Literatures, and Cultures has passionate professors who are committed to multicultural curriculum, such as Dr. Quirino DeBrito who came to the United States from Brazil to receive his PhD from UCLA and now teaches Portuguese and International Studies classes at Chico State. For the students not immediately interested in the international perspective, there is a general education global cultures requirement for all.

Chico State continues to evaluate campus policies and practices to improve them in its progress toward making the campus more equipped to instruct students in a world that is more globally connected every day.

Paul Zingg, president of Chico State, will retire this year. Over the last 13 years, President Zingg has set the tone and the vision for the university on matters concerning diversity.

“[Diversity] is more than just a lot of different people, whether it’s race, ethnicity, gender, economic situation, or geography,” Zingg explained. “It’s more than that. It’s basically respect, and in fact delight, in the differences that enable our lives to be more interesting, more responsible.”

Zingg was appointed president in November 2003. Soon after that, he set in place his Strategic Action Plan with an emphasis on diversity.

After 13 years, President Zingg is retiring and feels optimistic about diversity at Chico State.

“From the strategic plan, we developed what we call our diversity action plan. That then set in motion a number of goals for the university to achieve,” Zingg said.

According to Zingg, one goal was a commitment to achieving Hispanic-serving institution status, meaning that 25 percent of the student body is Hispanic or Latino. Due to his devotion to diversity, that goal was achieved this year. It also included implementing the general education pathway program.

“There are a number of those pathways that have a multicultural or diversity element to it,” Zingg said.

For President Zingg, the implication of diversity initiatives is a part of promoting a complete learning community at Chico State.

“We’re about to add to our strategic plan a specific priority on diversity, much like the priority that we added on civic engagement and that we added on sustainability,” he said.

This is a statement that puts a focus on diversity across the entire campus community, with key groups on campus, such as the academic senate, supporting the administration's diversity goals.

He is also excited about his successor, Gayle E. Hutchinson, and what she means for representation in the university’s administration.

“Having the first woman president in the history of the university heading our way—that’s a good statement,” Zingg said. “Gayle was one of the principal people involved with that first diversity action plan.”

“It’s basically respect, and in fact delight, in the differences that enable our lives to be more interesting, more responsible.”

In his retirement, President Zingg plans to stay busy writing, traveling, teaching, working with foundations on their development of programs and initiatives, and spending time with his wife and two daughters.

“I have to be careful not to try to do all of that at once,” Zingg joked. “The first thing I’m going to do is go off with my wife and have a little vacation.”

In his Kendall Hall office, Joe Wills pulls out a poster from a Building Bridges event in 2000, listing off the different speakers and their backgrounds. His knowledge and excitement about the organization’s history is proof of his long-lasting commitment to diversity and inclusion on Chico State’s campus.

Wills is the director of Public Affairs and Publications, and will be retiring this year.

In his 19 years at Chico State, Wills has been committed to embracing diversity. He has played an instrumental role in initiating institutional groups that support and promote a diverse campus.

“I have always been interested in the importance of both learning about other people’s experiences, but also trying to advocate for people who haven’t had the advantages I have had,” Wills said. “I come from a middle class, white, pretty privileged background. Not a wealthy background, but certainly I had all the obvious benefits that a white male enjoys.”

However, Wills was also inspired by several tragic events in the late 1990s which led him to believe that there was something missing from an education at Chico State.

After 19 years of promoting diversity on campus, Joe Wills is retiring.

The events included a homeless man who was beaten to death by two Butte College students in Chico, a gruesome death of a Chico State alumna, and the murder of a gay couple in Redding by two Chico State alumni.

“The two people who were responsible for the two gay men dying were Chico State graduates,” Wills explained. “The one who seemed most responsible was also responsible for the bombing of a synagogue in Sacramento and was an A student here. He was, by his academic record, one of our ‘stars,’ but he was clearly a hateful person.”

Wills was inspired to take action.

“Thinking about all those crimes, and then thinking about how our students are committing these crimes, made me wonder about what we do on a campus about this,” Wills said.

He was prompted to start conversations, which launched many of the initiatives that Chico State now has which promote diversity.

“I just started to talk to all kinds of people across campus about what we do and don’t do to try to educate students about diversity, and that gathering evolved into a group called Building Bridges,” Wills said.

From the conversations and events that Building Bridges inspired came further institutional support. Notably, the establishment of university staff positions dedicated to diversity, the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, the Cross Cultural Leadership Center, the University Diversity Council, and the Chico Student Success Center.

“Looking back, it was a little bit of a different campus then. There were certainly many people working in diversity and doing really good work, and many efforts had taken place before this period,” Wills reflects. “But we didn’t have, perhaps, the institutional support that we have now. It’s been great to see increased institutional support that was happening from the leadership of the campus.”

After he leaves Chico State, Wills will open a small, part-time counseling practice, where he will put his license as a marriage and family therapist (which he obtained from Chico State a few years ago) to use.

He hopes to see the university continue to educate the North State area on diversity issues and acceptance.

“I hope that we can branch out and be involved in programs that both help people who are disadvantaged in the North State, and help to educate and partner with people who may not be familiar with some of the diversity work that we’re trying to do,” Wills said.

“I just started to talk to all kinds of people across campus about what we do and don’t do to try to educate students about diversity, and that gathering evolved into a group called Building Bridges.”

The Office of the Registrar is the nuts and bolts of the University, setting the tone of education at Chico State. No one knows this better than the University registrar herself, Jean Irving.

Irving oversees all registration in the university, including records, degree changes, graduation, degree audits, enrollment reporting, veteran’s affairs, and transfers.

She is head of the strategic use of technology integrated daily into the lives of students at the University, like PeopleSoft.

“I’m always looking at what we can do better, what we can do different,” Irving explained. “That’s the part that excites me about this job.”

Irving is retiring after spending 36 years at Chico State. Throughout her multiple duties as University registrar, she has encouraged diversity as an important priority in all the elements that involve the registrar at Chico State.

Her definition of diversity expands beyond what we normally think of when we think of diversity issues.

After 36 years at Chico State, Jean Irving has embodied diversity as University Registrar.

“There are so many facets to it. It’s historically race, gender, ethnicity, those kinds of things,” Irving said, “but it’s much, much bigger than that. To me, it’s about acceptance.”

Irving feels that being accepting of who students are and their background is an important role of the Office of the Registrar.

“We make judgments sometimes about people not knowing their background,” Irving explained. “And I think about that a lot in terms of our students. We don’t know who those students are who might be living out of their cars and they come in here stressed out. We don’t know what’s going on in their lives.”

Irving promotes an accepting environment in her office by encouraging her staffers to participate in diversity training programs.

“I think it’s really important to campus, and I know people really learn what their biases are that they didn’t know they had,” Irving said.

Irving says that Chico State is a great place for people to practice acceptance and diversity.

“We have so much opportunity to get to know so many different people,” Irving said.

She thinks Chico State has been taking steps in the right direction toward becoming a more accepting institution.

“We have certainly raised the conversation about diversity,” she said, “and I think there’s some really good things happening on campus in terms of having that conversation, and I’d like to see that continue.”

She also praises workshops on campus, which have played a role in expanding her perspective, and hopes that members of the Chico State community will continue to participate in them.

“I’ve gone to some really good workshops on this campus with delivery of how other cultures perceive us, or you, or me, or whoever it may be,” she explained. “I think there’s always room for all of us to grow.”

“We have certainly raised the conversation about diversity, and I think there’s some really good things happening on campus in terms of having that conversation, and I’d like to see that continue.”

Shannon Boling, a Business Marketing major with a sustainability minor, recently finished her last season on Chico State’s volleyball team as an outside hitter after four years on the team.

Originally from Benicia, California, Boling began her college search as a freshman in high school. She would send out letters to different schools asking them to come watch her play. When her senior year started, she decided to sign with Chico State.

“I went on a couple official visits and came to Chico and honestly fell in love with all of the trees,” Boling says.

After four years of playing volleyball for Chico State, Shannon Boling is graduating and is ready to start her internship this summer.

Boling admits to putting volleyball before her studies when she was a freshman.

“I put my academics on the back burner, because to me volleyball was life. In high school, I didn’t think about college as college, I thought about it as the next step for volleyball,” Boling comments. “My view of the world was narrow, but I knew I liked people and I knew I liked talking to people.”

As her sophomore year came to a close, one of her teammates introduced her to the business major by explaining her coursework to Boling. She decided to take a few introduction classes and fell in love with the major.

“As a business student, it’s not just the great classes,” Boling says. “It’s also the community that’s willing to help.”

It was this community that led her to an internship last summer with E&J. Gallo Winery.

Boling attended a career fair on campus last year where she was introduced to Gallo’s representatives. She knew she wanted to apply and kept calling until her persistence paid off and they offered her a position.

“I wouldn’t be where I am today without the Career Center. The fact that they give us so many opportunities, I really don’t think that many other colleges are like that,” Boling reflects, nostalgically. “Here it’s: what kind of human being are you becoming? And at the end, it’s us just flying out of the nest and enjoying the trip.”

“This experience has been one of personal growth.“

Boling plans to complete another internship with Gallo this summer, and then at the end of August, she is off to Torino, Italy to study business. She has always wanted to study abroad, but as a student-athlete she couldn’t do it, until now. Boling will walk in the spring having completed all of her units.

“This experience has been one of personal growth,“ Boling comments. “I had fun with my friends, made some stupid mistakes; but in the end I was still a college athlete and I don’t think I could have pictured it any other way, at this place with all of the trees.”

Under the music pumping through the speakers in Selvester’s Café, senior agricultural business major Donte Wallace reflects on his time at Chico State. Originally from Gardena, California, Wallace wanted to attend Chico State because of its agriculture program and because it was just far enough away from home.

“My time at Chico State in one word? Great. It was a great time: great friends and a great experience. The sad part is that everyone got so close and now you have to leave it, everyone is going their separate ways,” Wallace says.

“Chico was the perfect school for agriculture,” Wallace comments. “I knew I wanted to do agriculture, but I wasn’t sure about what option to choose. The introduction into agriculture class helped me to choose my major.”

Senior agriculture student Donte Wallace is moving to North Carolina for his summer internship and graduate program.

While at Chico State, Wallace has been a part of a different organizations that have given him a new perspective. In the beginning of his time at Chico State, he joined the Men of Honor program which gives students the ability to hear from professionals about life after college.

“Guest speakers would come in and talk about the careers they had established, they taught us how to be a successful adult,” Wallace says.

The program also gave him the chance to travel to Sacramento and visit schools where they would coach young black students. They would work through the Black Youth Leadership Program and teach the kids on the importance of attending college.

“We acted as models to the young kids,” Wallace says, smiling. “We showed them that we were young and that we were in school. We did this in the hopes that they would want to attend college. ”

While working as a resident advisor for Craig hall, a dormitory located off Chico State’s campus, Wallace decided to join Phi Beta Sigma. Wallace was drawn to the fraternity by the amount of community service they did.

What comes next for this soon-to-be alumni? Wallace plans to attend a graduate program for agricultural business at either Texas A&M University or North Carolina State University, but first he will complete his summer internship working for North Carolina State University’s housing program.

“My time at Chico State in one word? Great.

“Part of me wanted to do student affairs and the other half wanted to do ag business,” Wallace says, “so that’s why I thought I would do the internship in student affairs and a master’s program in ag business. Then I’ll be happy both ways.”

As the café clears out, Wallace gets up to leave. Another day is done and that means it’s one step closer to graduation for this accomplished, soon-to-be alumni.

From a brief encounter with the vibrant Sam Franzoia, senior criminal justice major at Chico State, one would never guess that he had to overcome shyness as a freshman.

Franzoia had to cope with low self-confidence his first semester in Chico due to scarring on his face from a car accident that had happened one week before he started college.

“I was shy and reserved; I didn’t have that much confidence to go out,” Franzoia said. “There were scars on my face and I just didn’t want to go out and meet people.”

It wasn’t until second semester freshman year that Franzoia felt at home, something that he had been searching for since starting at Chico State. He found his comfort in his fraternity, Alpha Sigma Phi, which was originally founded in 1845 and started it’s Chico State chapter in 2011.

Senior criminal justice major Sam Franzoia looks forward to starting his new job after graduation.

“They made that original shyness disappear, and I really connected well with this group of people,” Franzoia said. “I really felt this sense of home that I had been looking for since my first semester.”

During his time with the fraternity, Franzoia held many positions that have helped him grow as a person, including one year as the fraternity’s president.

While going to school and participating in his fraternity, Sam also worked a couple jobs on campus. In 2013, he started working at Sutter Dinning and managed to move up to a student-supervisor position. After a year and a half, Franzoia took on the roll of paraprofessional at the fraternity and sorority affairs office.

“(The job) has really opened my eyes to the diversity of students who go here,” Franzoia comments with a smile. “The university is not just about my fraternity, but working at fraternity and sorority affairs has really pushed me to push those boundaries, and I have developed close friendships with people outside of my fraternity.”

“I really felt this sense of home that I had been looking for since my first semester.”

Franzoia’s passion for his fraternity and his strong spirit landed him a job at his fraternity’s headquarters in Carmel, Indiana, with the expansion and development team. His job will include going to universities that do not have the fraternity chapter and encouraging students to consider joining that brotherhood. He will share his experiences in the hopes that others will have the same kind of experience he had.

Franzoia calls his experience at Chico State an irreplaceable one.

“Chico State instills a desire to succeed and to work hard and really achieve what you have set your mind to,” Franzoia said.

It is this mindset that has inspired Franzoia to grow from a shy freshman to a self-confident senior.