NOTE: 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.

State-level cybersecurity preparedness needed to protect critical California infrastructure
GV Wire
May 23, 2023

During testimony to the California State Senate, cybersecurity expert Tony Coulson, executive director of CSUSB’s Cybersecurity Center, outlined the concerns that California must contend with in order to protect its critical infrastructure sectors, state Sen. Melissa Hurtado, D-Bakersfield, wrote in an article.

“California needs the ability to coordinate effectively for cyber-attack responses. A cyber-attack is not just a possibility, but a probability,” stated Coulson, outlining why the state needs to enhance it cyber-attack preparedness, wrote Hurtado, who is carrying Senate Bill 265, The bill would direct the California Office of Emergency Services (Cal-OES) and the California Cybersecurity Integration Center (Cal-CSIC) to prepare a multi-year outreach plan to assist critical infrastructure sectors specifically in efforts to improve cybersecurity.

CSUSB professor gives keynote at symposium, ‘Ecstatic Truth VII: Decolonising Animation’
University for the Creative Arts (United Kingdom)

Liliana Conlisk-Gallegos, associate professor of communication studies, gave one of the keynote presentations at Ecstatic Truth, “an annual symposium on animated documentary founded in 2016 that explores issues arising from the interface between notions of animation and of documentary.” The symposium took place on May 18. Her keynote was titled, “Shifting Toward Decoloniality: A transfronteriza nepantlera’s rasquache tactics in new media art and animation,” which begins at the 4:30:09 mark in the recorded video.

Cal State faculty stand up for academic freedom and free speech 
FIRE
May 25, 2023

Codi Lazar, an associate professor of geological sciences at California State University, San Bernardino, has been concerned for some time about the trend toward censorship in higher education. In an interview with FIRE, Lazar described the struggle for academic freedom and free speech on campus as “a battle between two intellectual spheres at the university” — one which values “free inquiry, open debate, open conversations, [and] free speech” versus one which teaches “a particular brand of political activism” and suppresses free speech and open inquiry when they are deemed harmful.

Lazar will speak at a June 7 webinar on academic freedom with with Executive Director of the Council of Academic Freedom at Harvard Flynn Cratty, associate professor of history at Carleton College Amna Khalid, and FIRE attorney Adam Steinbaugh. Register here

‘We are hitting a crescendo’ — California commission holds first public forum on hate crimes
Ethnic Media Services
May 25, 2023

Brian Levin, a member of the California Commission on the State of Hate, directs the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Cal State San Bernadino and is a veteran when it comes to tracking hate, with close to four decades including playing a key role in the first Supreme Court case to affirm the constitutionality of hate crimes laws in 1993.

“We are hitting this crescendo,” said Levin, as data show the number of hate crimes reaching new records even as they grow more violent.
With PRIDE month here, Levin called the “demonization and genocidal language” now being aimed at the LGBTQ+ community a “warning sign” and he urged greater vigilance and reporting in the runup to PRIDE related events.

“When we see residents of our state being maligned,” he said, “I don’t care what their faith or identity is. The laws of California mandate that we have to protect our civil rights.”

Allen gunman signed name with Nazi symbol on security guard application but still got license
KERA TV (Dallas, Texas)
May 25, 2023

Brian Levin, director of CSUSB’s Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, was quoted in an article about the gunman who shot killed eight people and wounded seven others at an Allen outlet mall who appears to have included a Nazi symbol in his signature when he applied for a security guard license in 2015.

"There are some excellent law enforcement professionals in Texas," said Levin. "But unfortunately, there wasn't one looking at this guy's application because there's no way he should have been anywhere near a position of public trust and safety."

Levin, who was a New York City police officer, said someone with an SS tattoo or signature is deeply rooted in bigotry.

"This is just incredibly, incredibly, incredibly bewildering that he could pass that without being apparently questioned or having it make a ripple," Levin said.

This news clip and others may be viewed at “In the Headlines.”