Spring 2024

Night Shift

For 23 years, Byron Hudson has supported student success by ensuring they learn in a safe and clean environment.

Byron Hudson has given 23 years of service to California State University, Dominguez Hills, working until quite recently as a custodian on the third shift—a vital contingent of the campus community that often gets overlooked and taken for granted.

Custodial Services gave Hudson a long-deserved promotion to assistant manager this past spring, Until that time, he cleaned, swept, mopped, and through the COVID-19 pandemic, completely sanitized about 25,000 to 35,000 square feet of campus each night.

Hudson has also raised two daughters with LeShawn, his wife of 30 years. They have a home in nearby Compton, and they travel the world when they can—Hawaii, St. Martin’s, and Jamaica are among their favorite destinations. Byron also serves as a pastor at his church and umpires local little league baseball games when his schedule permits.

As a manager, Hudson works tirelessly to ensure that his custodial crew embodies the same values and work ethic he brought to the job for so many years. He’s also helped Danny Morphin, the manager of Custodial Services, create a new strategic plan for the department to increase efficiency and improve conditions for the staff. Something that past CSUDH president and current CSU Chancellor Mildred Garcia said years back has stuck with him, says Hudson. “She reminded us that we’re all educators no matter what role we play on campus. We’re all educators because we’re all a part of the learning environment, and our top priority is our students.”

Colectivo Plurilingüe Gives Bilingual Education a Boost

“We really want to create a program that centers students’ language and sees it as a cultural strength, rather than the thing that’s preventing them from becoming English-proficient.”

That’s how Yesenia Fernandez of CSUDH’s Colectivo Plurilingüe describes one aspect of the group’s work on campus. A long-time school administrator who now serves as an assistant professor of school leadership at CSUDH, Fernandez often found herself frustrated by the approach to bilingual education in elementary and high schools she worked at.

“Too often, the attitude was, ‘Let’s get rid of that pesky Spanish, because it’s stopping them from speaking English.’,” she recalls. “Here, we look at it as an asset, and try to find ways for teachers to really engage with the Spanish language, rather than bury it.”

Bilingual and multilingual education has long been a hot-button issue in California because of the state’s large population of native Spanish speakers. Colectivo Plurilingüe is an ad hoc group of faculty members, teachers, students, and community members who devote their time to working with and for bilingual educators. The group stays at the forefront of these conversations today due to their innovative and timely work.

With the help of a recent five-year, $2.571 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education, CSUDH’s bilingual education initiatives are beginning to take hold. The grant was in support of Project MEDALLA (Multilingual Educator Development Advancing Language Learning Achievement/Activism), which aims to create a network of certified bilingual educators in Southern California.

The collective is dedicated to working with and for bilingual educators

Colectivo Plurilingüe works through two main channels: teaching, supporting best practices, and getting bilingual certifications for current College of Education students; and providing professional development to those already out in the field. For Nallely Arteaga, program coordinator for the college’s dual language learning program, her work with the collective is an extension of her regular job. She strives to make sure that every student possible attains their bilingual authorization before leaving CSUDH.

“This really aligns with my purpose as a teacher educator,” says Arteaga, “which is creating a stronger pipeline between our local community, local school districts, and the students that we serve. I feel like we have the responsibility of ensuring that more students are getting their teaching credentials and earning a bilingual authorization, so that they can better serve the students as well as represent our community.”

According to Stacy, associate professor of liberal studies and the co-principal investigator of the MEDALLA grant, “We knew that teachers want professional development that helps them strengthen their teaching and bilingual skills. But most of the professional development for bilingual teachers is through the lens of an English learner. It’s focused on wanting kids to learn English, and equates learning English with success. We wanted to develop a program that went in a different direction.”

Every summer, the collective hosts an on-campus professional development retreat for local educators looking to implement bilingual education into their classrooms. El Instituto, as it is called, has become one of the most in-demand professional development opportunities for Southern California teachers.

“One of the things that we do really differently is to do everything in Spanish,” says Stacy. “The idea is that we do the professional development in what we call the ‘partner language.’ It’s a way to privilege the Spanish language, which is associated with identity. It also serves as an opportunity to continue developing their Spanish skills. I believe it’s the only professional development happening in Spanish at this time.”

Prior to the 2016 passage of California Proposition 56, bilingual education had been largely banned in the state. The collective had been working quietly behind the scenes for years in preparation for the new rules, so when bilingual education returned to the state’s schools, CSUDH was ready with courses and initiatives designed to support those teachers.

“We were anticipating the law to change,” says Stacy. “We had a lot of conversations with our local school district partners, and we knew that these programs were coming and that they would need teachers. As soon as Prop. 56 passed, our programs were up and running.”

As Fernandez puts it, “In our region, there’s a real need for dual language or bilingual programs that are really meant to not only help students learn a second language, but help nurture their own culture. In most universities, you don’t learn how to do that with your students.

“That’s why this is so critical. We’re creating a space that is helping a lot of these teachers relearn and reconnect with some of what traditional K-12 and university schooling took away from them—being able to be their whole selves in these spaces.”

Women’s Studies Professor Wins Mellon Foundation Fellowship

Assistant Professor of Women’s Studies Tahereh Aghdasifar was awarded a Career Enhancement Fellowship by the Mellon Foundation’s Institute for Citizens & Scholars. Selected from a highly competitive pool of applicants, Aghdasifar is one of 10 recipients nationwide to receive a full-year award, which she is using to complete her book manuscript Ugly in Persian (and Other Stories of Queer Refraction).

Grounded in queer forms of care, Ugly in Persian is about the liberatory potential of ugly objects (such as hostile performance art, aggressive punk music, unfunny or uncanny sitcoms, and anti-archives). The project will demonstrate what unbecoming, illegible, and ugly acts can teach us about liberatory futures—particularly in regard to U.S./Iranian studies.

Citizens & Scholars Fellows are selected for the innovation of their research and the unique perspectives their work adds to their disciplines. Aghdasifar’s scholarship is grounded in women of color feminisms and queer of color critique, and Ugly in Persian reflects her commitment to research and service that increases diversity and inclusion on campus.

Waiting 200 Years for Online Clout

When Catharine Maria Sedgwick wrote of “a perfect community of light, & joy, & feeling, for all of one heart & one mind,” you might be excused for thinking she meant CSUDH on a warm April evening. But that particular phrase came from Sedgwick’s letter to Susan Higginson Channing, and it was sent in 1821—far before Toros roamed these hills.

Those letters by Sedgwick, a popular American novelist at the time, are making their way online thanks to Patricia Kalayjian, an emerita professor of interdisciplinary studies. The National Endowment for the Humanities recently awarded Kalayjian a $200,000 grant to support her work creating a digital archive of Sedgwick’s correspondence.

Sedgwick’s letters display the contradictions that life held for a female literary light in the 19th century. Some revel in “the glorious sun as he poured his golden beams upon” the trees; others fear “the thick clouds of calamity that envelop our Country” during the War of 1812. Still others state how many yards of cotton and linen cloth she wants her sister to buy.

“On one hand, Sedgwick was taking care of the family home in Stockbridge, making mince pies,” Kalayjian said. “But she was also going to Washington, D.C. and being escorted around by Millard Fillmore. She had a really interesting life!”

An Advocate for the Underrepresented

An Advocate

for the Underrepresented

ASI President Edgar Mejia-Alezano reflects on his past and how it’s shaped his approach to leadership.

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Public service runs deep for Edgar Mejia-Alezano, president and CEO of Associated Students, Inc. at California State University, Dominguez Hills. A proud son of Guatemala, he descends from two civic leaders of the small town of Retalhuleu, an agricultural hub in the southwest corner of the country, where he was born in 2002.

“It felt like a call to action when I was given the opportunity to serve in ASI,” says Alezano, who became Director of Student Services in 2021 before he has elected as Executive Vice President the following year. “My grandfather and his father were mayors in my hometown and fought hard to improve access to schooling for those who could least afford it.”

Life in Retalhuleu was hard for young Alezano. His parents emigrated to the United States by the time he was two. He grew up with his grandparents in a house that had no running water and only occasional electricity.

It’s hard for him in hindsight not to think of it as a journey home when he arrived in the United States at the age of four, concealed in the cargo hold of a passenger bus. He spent hours nestled among suitcases, with only water and a few snacks.

“I was very young, and I don’t remember every detail, but I know that I was scared and excited,” Alezano says. “My grandfather was taking me to a place where my dreams could come true, where my family was waiting for me, where I could be whatever I wanted to be.”

His parents and a few other family members met them at Union Station. “I remember that I gave everyone a big hug. Then I got to my dad,” Alezano says. “I was so young when he left, and I had no real memory of him as my dad, but I threw myself at him and didn’t let go.”

In the excitement of his arrival, he forgot his suitcase on the bus. His great-grandmother had packed it full of family photographs. “I had no idea the value of what I was carrying,” he recalls. “It was a record of my life, a life that my parents had missed, and it was gone forever.”

In the years since, artifacts have become important to Alezano. He pulls a worn paperback from a bookshelf. “My grandfather gave me this after we arrived in America. It used to belong to his father,” he says. “It’s a sort of guide to the qualities that a good man should have. It represents all the hopes he had for me.”

Alezano played football at Crenshaw High School, helping the Cougars win a state championship in 2017. During his senior year, he toured CSUDH. It was a representative of ASI that ultimately inspired him to become a Toro. “He talked about campus as a welcoming community and a place that I could call home.”

It felt like a call to action when I was given the opportunity to serve in ASI,” says Alezano, who became Director of Student Services in 2021 before he has elected as Executive Vice President the following year. “My grandfather and his father were mayors in my hometown and fought hard to improve access to schooling for those who could least afford it.”

CSUDH proved to be a perfect fit. “When I say that CSUDH is where dreams come true, it’s been the literal truth for me,” he says. “You are seen here, no matter where you come from or how you got here, and you have opportunities that you could never have imagined.”

Alezano successfully ran for president in 2023 on a platform of providing more assistance to students from underrepresented communities. Key priorities have included making menstrual hygiene products freely available to any students who need them, as well as advocating for increased funding to extend students opportunities and resources for Theater Arts and Dance, Music, and Intramural programs. He’s also co-chair of the Financial Aid and Affordability Task Force that was convened late last year, to help mitigate the impact of tuition increases on students struggling to afford higher education.

A family tragedy in 2022 nearly convinced him to leave ASI. Two of the most important people in his life—his great-grandmother and his aunt—passed away in the space of 36 hours. For the next few months, he struggled to focus on school and even submitted a letter of resignation from ASI to then-President Obioha “Obi” Ogbonna. Fortunately, he says, Ogbonna talked him into staying. “He told me not to make a life-changing decision while I was grieving.”

Alezano has always worn the mantle of leadership lightly. His role, he says, is to provide the support and direction that so many others gave to him. “I’ve never tried to hide my background,” he says. “When I talk to students and their parents, I see that they recognize my story because it’s their story, too.”

Brought up in the Christian faith, Alezano says he’s found strength to overcome the challenges he’s faced from a verse in the Gospel of John. In the 13th verse of chapter 7, Jesus tells his disciples they don’t yet know what he’s doing but that they will understand later. “I don’t always know why things happen in life, especially the hard things, but that’s not a reason to give up,”  he says.

In the worn paperback book his grandfather gave him, Alezano keeps a small sheaf of handwritten letters. “He would write to me from Guatemala and remind me to work hard.” The book and letters help him stay connected with his grandfather, who died in 2016.

You are seen here, no matter where you come from or how you got here, and you have opportunities that you could  never have imagined.”

Spring 2024

Night Shift

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Colectivo Plurilingüe Gives Bilingual Education a Boost

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Women’s Studies Professor Wins Mellon Foundation Fellowship

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Waiting 200 Years for Online Clout

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An Advocate

for the Underrepresented

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