“Obviously an injury today… we have to work on repair, and I encourage you all to do so,” said Dr. Vernon Harper, Interim President of Cal State Bakersfield to the Associated Student Inc. board of directors at the ASI meeting on April 26.
During the public comment section of the ASI meeting, many students spoke up regarding their hurt, frustrations, and feelings about the information they received regarding Minaya Valentine, ASI Director of Special Populations, experience running for ASI President.
Valentine, for the first time, spoke up publicly in the ASI meeting regarding the hate crime she experienced while running for ASI President.
Valentine said that she wanted to spread visibility around campus, and by running to be the first Black ASI President, it made her question why there has never been a Black women president in ASI. She also questioned what other Black ASI candidates experienced while running for office.
“It was hateful…I felt targeted, discriminated, and isolated. I didn’t feel comfortable in my own skin.” said Valentine.
Valentine shared how although ASI states that they are the voice of students and their concerns, when she faced a hate crime, she felt questioned and dismissed. She said that ASI did nothing when she was a target of hateful acts.
Valentine seeks justice from Title IX, the Department of Student Affairs, and that elections code 4.9, reporting violations of elections, is upheld.
“I spent countless hours putting placing over 200 flyers, and 6 posters… it was one thing to have my personal property to be taken down completely, but it was hateful to rip down a portion of them and leave them hanging on the wall.” said Valentine.
TJ Moreno, CSUB student, said how he needed to “convey my dismay at the evident biasness, and lack of fairness portrayed in the piece [The Runner article]…”
Moreno said the article also includes misinformation such as that Valentine did not violate campaign guidelines.
“She posted daily videos tagging numerous clubs and organizations without their consent… We have removed these tags as we did not wish to associate with her campaign. After a few days of this happening, we got tired of us having to remove tags and reported these violations to ASI and unfortunately no actions were taken about her violations.” Said Moreno.
Another violation that Moreno said he witnessed was on April 3, Valentine and her team posted her campaign flyers in club and organizations group chats, urging them to vote for her.
Moreno said that it was an elections code violation as Valentine was actively campaigning during the voting period. Moreno further went on to say that Valentine is currently violating election codes as she still has campaign posters up to this date.
By The Runner highlighting Emily Callahan, the dean of students, as a supporter of Valentine, Moreno said that it is a questionable conflict of interest as someone who is investigating the case.
The Runner states that, Callahan is the Dean of Students and is not part of the Title IX department where Valentine was referred to. Callahan also does not oversee areas within ASI elections. The Dean of Students oversees student conduct, hears students’ complaints, and concerns.
Moreno said that there was inherent bias throughout the article as The Runner neglected to seek input from the quoted individual and the other side that was running for ASI Elections.
Valentine violated election codes by posting during the voting period, Pacheco said that Valentine did not break any election codes when it came to the posting of her flyers.
Pacheco, ensures that election codes are being upheld and handles all ASI election conflicts. The ASI board of directors does not handle official election violation complaints and cannot enforce any official actions towards elections violations.
The Runner is not aware of any specific quoted individual, as Valentine did not name an individual who tore down the posters during interviews. Furthermore, the Runner did not reach out to the other side who was running for elections as Valentine didn’t share any names of other candidates.
The Runner reached out to Mike Kwon, ASI executive director, and Daisy Alamillo, ASI President, and after several phone calls to the ASI department, in person visits to the ASI office, and emails to Kwon and Alamillo, we failed to receive a response, as The Runner stated in the article.
Stephany Carrillo, senior studying psychology, spoke up about what she witnessed with Valentine’s posters. At the meeting, Carrillo passed out photos of evidence of what Valentine’s posters looked like around campus.
“When I saw these photos I was very mad… the fact that someone would be as hurtful and rude to rip something off that wasn’t theirs…” said Carrillo.
Carrillo said how she had to search the word hate crime to determine if she was using the word appropriately and can now say with 100 percent certainty that she believes it was.
Further saying how, she has been a student for four years at CSUB where they often talk about diversity and inclusivity, yet after what she saw, she doesn’t feel like anything CSUB said was true.
Harper said he was caught off guard and that he feels it as not only the President of CSUB, but also as a Black person. Harper said that as this campus desires to be inclusive, that this desire must be backed up with concrete actions.
“My only note is to say that it is a time in which I will infer with the leadership team, Dr. Wallace, [Vice President of Student Affairs,] Emily [Callahan], Mike [Kwon], Ilaria [Pesco, Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs and Student Success] and try to get a sense of what happened and then I’ll take it from there.”
To access the ASI meeting recording, visit CSUB’s official ASI Instagram at csub_asi, and click on link in bio and navigate to “ASI Board Meeting Recordings.”
This is an ongoing investigation and further updates will be uploaded to therunneronline.com.
Update on May 12: A previous version of this story stated that Minaya Valentine didn’t break election codes. Valentine broke election codes by posting during campaign season.
