Jose Antonio Vargas makes history as first undocumented Trustee of the California State University system

DEFINE AMERICAN

Jose Antonio Vargas has become an advocate for undocumented Americans.

In an historic appointment, Jose Antonio Vargas has been named the first undocumented person and first Filipino American to serve as a regularly appointed member of the Board of Trustees for the California State University system. 

The California State Senate approved Vargas’ nomination for a seat on the 25-member board on June 19 following an appointment by Governor Gavin Newsom in July 2022. As a trustee, Jose will be part of the key decision making body to adopt policies and regulations that govern the nation’s largest public four-year university system in areas such as educational policy, finance, and campus planning.

“As a proud graduate of San Francisco State — Class of 2004, before there was DACA, when the Dream Act was three years old, and when there was little vocabulary and support for undocumented students and our families — I am honored, humbled, and excited to serve this community,” said Jose Antonio Vargas, founder and president of Define American.

Vargas' unpaid 8-year term expires in 2030.

Vargas came to the United States from the Philippines when he was 12-years old leaving his mother in the Philippines to live with relatives in the San Francisco Bay Area. As his life unfolded, he navigated school, then college and work as an undocumented person, eventually earning a degree in political science from San Francisco State University.

After graduating, he worked as a journalist at numerous well-known publications, including The San Francisco Chronicle and The Washington Post and Huffington Post. As a member of a team of Washington Post journalists covering the Virginia Tech shooting rampage, in 2009, he earned a Pulitzer Prize.

In 2011, Vargas revealed his undocumented status in an essay published in The New York Times.

“I am thrilled at Jose’s historic appointment and enthusiastically welcome the extraordinary professional and personal qualities he brings to the CSU Board of Trustees,” said Chair Wenda Fong, a second-generation Chinese American and the first Asian American to lead the CSU Board of Trustees.

“His rich lived experience and demonstrated compassion for immigrants, undocumented students and other historically underserved student populations will undoubtedly benefit the talented and dynamically diverse students the CSU is so privileged to serve.”

The historic appointment comes just days before the 12th anniversary of Define American on June 22, the nonprofit Vargas founded in 2011 with three friends with the goals to humanize media portrayals of immigrants. Twice-named one of the world’s most innovative companies by Fast Company, Define American has established itself as one of the most trusted and impactful organizations in the culture change space.

“We’re extremely proud of Jose for shattering the glass ceiling and paving the way for countless others through this historic appointment to the CSU Board of Trustees,” said Define American Executive Director Rebecca Neuwirth. “Jose is continuing to blaze the trail for immigrants of all backgrounds to pursue their ambitions fiercely and to achieve what feels impossible, as Jose has shown time and time again.”

California State Senator María Elena Durazo — who in her first year as a senator spearheaded legislation expanding eligibility for state appointments to boards and commissions to non-citizens — spoke in support of Vargas' appointment to the CSU Board.

“It’s been an incredible privilege for me to serve for, and work on behalf of, immigrants. In a representative democracy where voters elect leaders to speak and vote on their behalf, non-citizens who are not yet able to vote must rely on the political will of a few to speak for their interest and needs. Appointments to state and local boards and commissions allow for immigrants like Jose Antonio Vargas to speak for themselves,” said Senator Durazo.

“A Pulitzer Prize winner, Jose’s perspectives and expertise, through his journalism, will now help us in California draft better policy that improves education opportunities for all. I’m so proud to stand in support of his nomination.”

With polarization heating up and extremists continuing to scapegoat immigrant communities through mis- and disinformation, Define American has ambitious plans to expand its critical work of changing the narrative. The organization, which celebrates its 12th anniversary today, has reached more than 30 million people with the vibrant stories of immigrants who have long enriched the United States.

In addition to his historic appointment on the CSU Board of Trustees, Jose also became the first known undocumented lead producer on Broadway earlier this week after the groundbreaking musical Here Lies Love started previews. He will celebrate 30 years in the United States this August.

Vargas is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Emmy-nominated filmmaker and Tony-nominated producer. A leading voice for the human rights of immigrants, he founded Define American, a nonprofit cult​ure-change organization with the goal of humanizing conversations about immigrants.

In 2020, Fortune named Vargas one of its “40 under 40" most influential people in government and politics. His best-selling memoir, “Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen," was published in 2018. His second book, “White Is Not a Country," will be published in 2023.

In 2011, The New York Times Magazine published a groundbreaking essay written by Vargas that chronicled his life in America as an undocumented immigrant. 

"I'm done running. I'm exhausted," Vargas wrote in his essay. "I don't want that life anymore."

A year later, as one of the nation's best known undocumented Americans, he appeared on the cover of Time worldwide with fellow undocumented immigrants as part of a follow-up cover story he wrote.

Vargas produced and directed “Documented," an autobiographical documentary feature film that aired on CNN, which received a 2015 NAACP Image Award nomination for Outstanding Documentary. That same year, MTV aired “White People," an Emmy-nominated television special he produced and directed on what it means to be young and white in a demographically changing America.

In 2019, he co-produced Heidi Schreck's acclaimed Broadway play, “What the Constitution Means to Me," which was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Play.

Passionate about the role of arts in society and promoting equity in education, Vargas serves on the advisory board of TheDream.US, a scholarship fund for undocumented immigrant students.

A product of the San Francisco Bay Area, he is a graduate of San Francisco State University ('04), where he was named Alumnus of the Year in 2012.

In 2019, an elementary school was named after Vargas  in Mountain View, CA, where he spent his teenage years. It was the first US school named after an undocumented immigrant.

The older he gets the more Vargas says he values the education he received in California public schools. “Joining the CSU board is my way of giving back. And we must give back in whatever way we can,” he says.

“The CSU does vital work of educating and preparing a truly diverse student body, which includes immigrants and undocumented students of all backgrounds, to contribute critical skills to our workforce and country," says Vargas. "My hope is to represent the diversity of the entire student body and to showcase that a student’s immigration status is only one part of their humanity.”

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow @DioknoEd on Twitter or at his blog Views From the Edge.

Ethnic studies mandatory for California State University system, bill advances for high school ethnic studies course

 

An Asian American Studies class at Cal State University, Fullerton.

It's a shame a law has to be passed in order to have the history of ethnic minorities included in high school studies but centuries of having only one version of history taught in schools makes this complicated road to the truth necessary.

Hoping to build on the heightened awareness of the racial disparities that exist in almost all U.S. institutions, Assembly Bill 331l would require all students to take ethnic studies to graduate from high school is pressing Senate leaders to free up the bill and send it to California's Gov. Gavin Newsom for his signature before the end of August. 

“For too long, the experiences and contributions of people of color have been left out of the classroom,” said Assemblymember Jose Medina, one of the lead authors of the bill.

“Ethnic studies courses empower students and help build culturally competent citizens. Requiring ethnic studies will help ensure that all students learn a more holistic and representative history of the United States and foster a deeper understanding of our commonalities and differences.”

The governor on Monday (Aug. 17) signed another bill that would make a course in ethnic studies a prerequisite for graduation at a California State University. That requirement would take effect for the freshmen of 2024. (For those unfamiliar with California, the CSU is different from the better known University of California system.)

“Ethnic studies will make people uncomfortable and if not, then it has not done its job."

-- Assemblymember Shirley Weber

The bill for high school on Thursday (Aug. 20) passed the Senate Appropriations Committee and now goes to the full Senate for a vote.

Medina has amended the Assembly Bill 331 to apply to students entering 9th grade in the fall of 2025. That would give school districts and charter schools several years to phase in ethnic studies. But Medina and members of the Black, Latino and Asian and Pacific Islander legislative caucuses are pressing ahead with it now, capitalizing on the tail winds of widespread public sympathy with the Black Lives Matter movement and racial reckoning the country is undergoing.

If signed into law, California would be the first state to mandate ethnic studies as a high school requirement. AB 331 would require at a minimum a one-semester course that would be based on an ethnic studies model curriculum that districts could use to fashion their own version. In 2016, the Legislature ordered that the curriculum be created to encourage more districts to teach ethnic studies.

Medina along with members of the caucuses of Black, Latino and Asian Pacific American legislators, organized a press conference before the Appropriation Committee's vote. 

Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia, D-Bell Gardens, referred to the police killing of George Floyd in explaining why the Legislature should act.

“AB 331 is a clear way and a great way to make sure we are pricking students’ consciousness before they enter adulthood and before we have to see any more videos of people dying,” she said. “The time is now to answer the call for justice in a meaningful way.” 

Meanwhile, Newsom approved Assembly Bill 1460 that requires all students enrolled on all 23 CSU campuses to take a 3-unit class in Native American studies, African American studies, Asian American studies or Latina and Latino studies.

The new law will make California the first state to require ethnic studies as a university graduation requirement, according to the California Faculty Association.

CSU, the largest university system in the nation, has been in the forefront of ethnic studies education. In 1969, after a months-long strike led by minority students, the College of Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State became the first college of its kind in the country. Cal State Los Angeles created the first Chicano studies program in 1968.

“Ethnic studies will make people uncomfortable and if not, then it has not done its job,” said Assemblywoman Shirley Weber, D-San Diego, who coauthored the legislation. “It was founded because the current system crushed people; to not recognize how deep is racism is to deny ethnic studies.”