Head of CSUN Stands Firm on Hiring White : Protest: Commenting on Black Student Union’s objections, president says, ‘We just don’t agree with their conclusion.’

The white instructor at Cal State Northridge whose hiring in the Pan-African Studies Department sparked a protest by some black students will remain because she was properly hired and is qualified for the job, said CSUN President Blenda J. Wilson.

“There are not and have never been racial, ethnic or gender requirements for hiring,” said Wilson, who is black, in her first direct comments on the controversy. “We are listening to our students. We just don’t agree with their conclusion,” Wilson said in an interview.

Last week, between 50 and 100 students organized by CSUN’s Black Student Union marched on campus to demand the removal of Katherine Komis from a part-time job this year teaching two basic English skills courses in the department. She is its only non-black instructor.

This week, however, the scene was considerably quieter on campus as Komis, who said she is completing a master’s degree in English and has studied African-American literature, continued with her ethnically mixed classes free of disruption.

“I’m going to keep teaching, just keep teaching,” Komis said, adding that she had expected attention but had “no idea” her hiring would spark the protest.

The university’s race-based controversy over faculty hiring mirrors similar episodes at several other U.S. universities in the past year.

But it also is the latest manifestation of continuing unease among black students and faculty at CSUN who claim the university has been neglecting their needs.

“I think the students are really concerned about the lack of African-Americans as faculty role models and in the administration. And I think that’s a legitimate complaint,” said Selase Williams, the past chair of CSUN’s black studies department and now a dean at Cal State Dominguez Hills.

CSUN officials stressed that Komis was hired over the summer because she was rated and ranked above other candidates for part-time positions in the department, including some black candidates, by Williams as the departing chair and another black department member.

Apart from defending Komis’ qualifications, university officials said complying with the BSU’s demand would have exposed the university to legal challenges. BSU officials did not return repeated calls for comment, but previously had demanded the position go to someone “completely immersed in black culture.”

In contrast to the black studies controversy, CSUN’s Chicano Studies Department, whose entire full-time staff is Latino, also hired two white women this fall for courses similar to Komis’ with no student protests.

Black students at CSUN have a history of militancy from the founding of their department in the late 1960s to the BSU’s hosting last fall of controversial Nation of Islam minister Louis Farrakhan on campus. Black students saw Komis’ hiring as meaning one less black faculty member on campus, Williams said.

Cal State records show CSUN’s share of full-time black faculty, now at 4.1%, lags behind its 6.8% share of black students. But the proportion of black faculty is about average for the 20-campus system.

Several campuses have higher shares of black faculty than students. Others are like CSUN but with even wider disparities.

There is an even wider disparity at Cal State campuses between its growing Latino student population and full-time Latino instructors, and a smaller gap between Asian-American students and teachers. Cal State officials say they have been trying to close those gaps, but the bad economy of recent years has limited hiring opportunities, officials said.

Around the country, similar hiring disputes involving criticism of whites for teaching black-oriented classes have surfaced at Iowa State University, Portland State University and Weber State University in the past year.

Blacks at CSU

Percentages of black faculty members and students at the California State University campuses for the fall of 1993 include:

Full-time Campus Students faculty Bakersfield 5.3% 4.3% Chico 2.3% 1.8% Dominguez Hills 25.8% 8.1% Fresno 4.3% 3.1% Fullerton 2.7% 3.0% Hayward 11.1% 7.3% Humboldt 1.7% 1.0% Long Beach 6.8% 3.4% Los Angeles 8.4% 5.4% Northridge 6.8% 4.1% Pomona 3.4% 4.3% Sacramento 5.5% 5.4% San Bernardino 7.6% 4.1% San Diego 4.8% 2.7% San Francisco 6.4% 5.6% San Jose 4.2% 2.9% San Luis Obispo 1.9% 2.2% San Marcos 3.1% 6.9% Sonoma 3.6% 2.1% Stanislaus 3.2% 4.1%

Source: California State University System