CSUN Apologizes for Brochure Art : Northridge: The flyer, mailed to 40,000 alumni, was illustrated with a sketch of Mexican beans sleeping under sombreros.

Following a protest by Latino faculty and staff members, Cal State Northridge issued a formal apology Tuesday for a homecoming brochure illustrated with a stereotypical sketch of Mexican beans sleeping under big hats.

The campus official responsible for the brochure mailed to 40,000 local alumni said he originally thought the artwork, depicting two pinto beans under sombreros, showed a pair of hotdogs.

The brochure drew an especially strong reaction from CSUN’s Latino employees because it was distributed shortly after a protest against changes to a program that serves minority students. The critics also cited a fraternity party flyer circulated two years ago that drew similar protests.

“We’re still dealing with the same issues of stereotypes we were dealing with 25 years ago,” complained Frank Muniz, a counselor on campus. “I was angry at how this even could be approved without someone noticing it would be insensitive.”

The two-inch artwork is one of several illustrations on an 11-by-17-inch brochure advertising the campus’ Oct. 22 homecoming activities. The artwork shows a pair of hunched-over beans wearing sombreros sitting on a serape, a blanket-like Latino garment.

“That’s the stereotype of sleeping Mexicans,” Muniz said.

Gray Mounger, CSUN’s newly hired director of alumni relations who supervised development of the brochure, said he failed to see the image that way when he first reviewed the illustration. “I asked for partying hotdogs, and when I saw the (proof), it looked like hotdogs to me,” Mounger said.

“I certainly regret the brochure offended people. It wasn’t meant to be offensive to anyone,” said Mounger, who arrived recently from George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

Mounger said he just asked the brochure designer to insert various pieces of stock art in the brochure to make it livelier.

But in the apology letter to the campus community, Director of University Development Michael Hammerschmidt, Mounger’s supervisor, called the image “inappropriate” and “offensive.” In an interview, Hammerschmidt said he would reprimand Mounger.

“The images used are offensive to members of this community, and it is most unfortunate that they appeared in a mailer which was intended to be welcoming and inclusive, not exclusive in any way,” wrote Hammerschmidt, apologizing on behalf of the university relations division.

CSUN officials said the apology was to be submitted to the Daily Sundial, the campus student newspaper. It will also be included in a university information bulletin to be distributed on campus later this week and reprinted in an alumni publication to be mailed out next month.

Hammerschmidt said he too checked the proof of the brochure prior to printing, but said, “I only read the words. I didn’t look at the artwork.” In addition to the alumni mailing last week, the brochure was routinely distributed Friday to faculty and staff on campus.

With CSUN President Blenda J. Wilson out of the country on a trip, complaints from Latino faculty and staff members began to reach Provost Louanne Kennedy’s office by Friday afternoon. “As soon as I saw it Saturday, I said we needed to apologize,” Kennedy said.