NOTE: This is an intermittent feature highlighting CSUSB faculty who are mentioned in the news. Faculty, if you are interviewed and quoted by news media, or if your work has been cited, and you have an online link to the article or video, please let us know. Contact us at news@csusb.edu.
Enrique Murillo, professor of education and founding executive director of the Latino Education and Advocacy Days, has been named the 2016 Education Leader of the Year by the community group Unidos Por La Musica, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting economic self-sufficiency and upward mobility to low-income community residents through education and the power of music.
'Unidos Por La Musica values our partnership with LEAD organization to further educate our communities. We admire and respect the tremendous commitment Dr. Murillo has demonstrated in the education for our Latino community,' said UPLM president and CEO Oscar Ayon. Murillo will be honored at the group's Christmas Ball Gala on Dec. 8 at the Ontario Convention Center.
The article, published Dec. 6, 2016, may be read at “CSUSB LEAD founder and director named educational leader.”
Murillo was also quoted in an article about the rise of protests on Southern California college campuses, as well as nationwide, after the Nov. 8 election that elected Donald Trump to the presidency. Cry-ins, class walkouts, marches — all have become routine parts of campus life in recent weeks, a response to the election of a candidate who denied climate change, repeatedly made statements viewed as misogynistic, and called for building a wall between the U.S. and Mexico, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin reported.
“The students are fearing Trump’s ascent and the potential impact it has domestically and abroad,” said Murillo. “We are witnessing a rise in student engagement and student activism.”
The article was published Dec. 4, 2016, and may be read at “Presidential election sparks a rise in Southern California college campus unrest.”
News media continue to rely on the expertise of Brian Levin, criminal justice professor and director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, as the city of San Bernardino reflected on the Dec. 2, 2015, tragedy a year later. Fourteen people, including five CSUSB alumni, died in the attack that wounded 22 people.
KNBC sent reporter Patrick Healy to one of Levin’s classes where students discussed people’s attitudes and actions in the year since the mass shooting in the Inland Regional Center by two terrorists, interviewing both Levin and the students.
The online video, posted on Dec. 2, 2016, may be viewed at “San Bernardino professor teaches lesson on hate crimes.”
Levin was also interviewed by KQED reporter Nathan Rott for an NPR report also taking a look at San Bernardino a year after the attack. For some people in San Bernardino and the greater Inland Empire, Dec. 2, 2015, will always be the day that established a new normal. For others, the change is less acute.
“We’re a better community now, even though we’re hurt,” Levin said. In the days and weeks that followed the tragedy, Levin met with faith leaders, law enforcement and families of the victims, and he says he noticed a unity of shock and shared pain.
While other parts of the country were arguing about gun laws and immigration, and as hate crimes against Muslims rose, San Bernardino “didn’t have the luxury to be divisive,” he says — something he still sees today.
“[The attack] will always be a part of our history,” Levin says. “But here’s the thing: so will the heroics of those police officers and first responders and medical staff, and so will the grace of the families. We’re writing the rest of the history. The bastards lost.”
The article was published Dec. 2, 2016, and may be read at “San Bernardino shooting’s signs have faded, but memories remain piercing.”