University administration has dozens of unauthorized flyers removed
by Leslie Layton | Posted May 6, 2025
The flyer that appeared on classroom doors last week
This story was updated at 4 p.m. today to include the university’s response.
Three hundred flyers suddenly appeared on campus doors at Chico State University last week, warning that law enforcement officers – a reference to immigration agents — would only be allowed in classrooms and other “private spaces” if they possessed judicial warrants.
“CAUTION CAUTION CAUTION” warns a flyer banner highlighted in yelllow. The flyer then notes that a classroom is a “private space” with entry restricted to faculty, staff and enrolled students. “Law enforcement may only enter with a valid judicial warrant … Everyone in the United States, regardless of immigration status, has the right to remain silent,” it continues.read more
ICE representatives participate in CSUC student recruitment
by ChicoSol staff | Posted February 26, 2025
“Fuera ICE” (Out with ICE) reads a protester’s sign at the BMU today.
About 40 protesters gathered in front of the Bell Memorial Union (BMU) today to protest the presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at a Chico State job fair.
Two recruiters from Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), a law enforcement agency within ICE, were recruiting at the fair. “No justice, no peace, until ICE leaves,” protesters chanted in the plaza outside the BMU as other students waited in line to check in so that they could attend the fair.
The single-door check-in process was a new step implemented for today’s fair, said Andrew Staples, university public relations manager.
A Chico State counselor participated in today’s protest, stating that ICE’s presence “causes fear and mental health anguish. It’s an impact on students.” He declined to identify himself because of what he said are his concerns about retaliation from the administration.
“I think it’s important for students and for faculty and staff to stand up and say something,” the counselor said. “I’ve met students who had concerns and issues and regards about the new immigration policies, and also having ICE on campus or people who represent Homeland Security. They have talked to me multiple times.”
PR Manager Staples told ChicoSol that he recognized that “it’s unsettling times, and it hasn’t been the most comfortable last couple of months on campus for sure.” But he also noted that “we are legally obligated to have organizations like HSI there.”
“We did not invite them, but we make these career fairs available to all kinds of organizations, and they evaluate and they sign up,” Staples said. “Once they sign up, as a federally-funded institution it’s our legal responsibility to not discriminate, to allow everyone who signs up to come.”
Staples thinks of the “peaceful protest” as a good example of “our campus community, making their voices heard, advocating for what they believe in.”
Staples said the safety measures for this career fair were “different” from measures implemented previously. “We knew that there was a strong possibility of free speech activity, and it’s a little bit more regulated on getting in and getting out.”
Two or three police officers stood next to the only entrance and exit. People needed to show student identification and check in their bags before attending, several fair attendees told ChicoSol.
A flier circulating earlier this week on social media announced a sit-in inside the BMU, and said, “Sitters will meet inside around the ICE recruitment table and sit down on all sides of it to prevent anyone from approaching.” That kind of disruption did not occur today.
Mac, a former Chico State student who preferred to remain unidentified, said she helped spread the word about the protest. “People who are currently allowed inside have to sign in, check in their bags. I doubt that if anybody from this (protest) area walked up, they would let us in,” she said.
Staples said that a sit-in, or chanting inside the BMU, would violate the university’s free speech policy, but all CSUC students were allowed to participate in the fair as long as it wasn’t a “disruption.”
ChicoSol was not allowed entrance to the fair or given an opportunity to seek comment from ICE recruiters.
Ty Torres, a construction management student at Chico State, attended the career fair inside the BMU. He said the protest was “kind of like an overreaction.”
“They (the recruiters) weren’t just talking about ICE, they were talking about other opportunities in their field. They were not actually deporting people right now,” Torres said.
Torres and his friend Payton Wheeler talked to the recruiters at the HSI booth. “They were hiring for a broad amount of positions, like sort of analytical stuff, more like information processing. They’re (also) having some sort of internship process,” Wheeler said.
A march against HSI’s presence took place on campus on Feb. 24.
Anna Krause, an organizer of the protest held earlier this week, said she hoped students attending the fair understand the role of ICE.
“[We want] to make sure that people know that this organization they might be interested in working for has a very real and a very scary impact on their own classmates and members of their own community as well,” Krause said.
Homeland Security Investigations has job and volunteer openings
by ChicoSol staff | Posted February 24, 2025
Students protested at Chico State today.
A group of protesters circled the Chico State campus today, then gathered on the lawn near the Bell Memorial Union to protest the participation of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) at a job fair that will be held Feb. 26.
“No ICE on campus!” chanted marching protesters. “We do not need people who are choosing to dehumanize our fellow humans, our friends and our family and the members of our community on our campus, threatening their safety,” said an organizer, Anna Krause.
Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), San Francisco/NorCal, a law enforcement component within ICE, has registered to attend Chico State’s Business Career Fair. The flier for the fair indicates the agency has openings for special agents as well as student volunteers.
Krause, a biology graduate student, said the protest was organized spontaneously by a group of people “who saw the announcement about ICE being at the career fair and then just decided to protest.”
One protest sign read, “Mass deportation is not a career.”
Andrew Staples, public relations manager at Chico State, didn’t respond to ChicoSol’s request for comment before publication.
An email sent to the campus community from Isaac Brundage, vice president for student affairs, acknowledges that the presence of ICE on campus may be “alarming to some in our community.”
“We want to assure you that the HSI representatives attending are solely recruiters there to discuss career opportunities with students,” the email states, adding that the recruiters won’t be acting in any “enforcement capacity.”
The Feb. 21 email also says that the Career Center and Dream Center are collaborating to provide a “Know your Rights” workshop via Zoom at 3 p.m. Feb. 25.
Bryce Ingersoll tabled on campus, discussing with students what implementation of the TPM policy would mean.
The Chico State Academic Senate has called on the California State University (CSU) Chancellor’s office to suspend the interim “Time, Place, Manner” (TPM) policy that sets rules for student protests.
The Oct. 31 resolution says the CSU should “initiate a process of good faith negotiation through shared governance to determine what guidance for peaceful activism … may be justified and consensually applied.”
The local Academic Senate took action days after the Academic Senate of the California State University system passed a resolution condemning the CSU-wide interim TPM policy. The California Faculty Association notes the policy restricts use of face coverings and requires “advance written permission for posters, signs, banners, and chalking.”
At a September forum at Chico State, Joseph Morales, university diversity officer, explained that the Chancellor’s office developed the framework each campus would use for a TPM policy; each campus was then asked to prepare an addendum detailing how the policy would be implemented.
The main complaints from forum participants then were about potential restrictions on free speech and a lack of transparency and communication in the decision-making process.
ChicoSol covered the open forum held in September and found some inconsistencies in the draft policy: The areas the university said were available for free speech activities were classified as Limited Areas, where sound amplified activities including protests, demonstrations and marches, were prohibited.
After the September forum, Chico State posted a revised addendum. One major change is reclassification of outside spaces on campus. Based on the new addendum, outside spaces such as Kendall Lawn and Trinity Commons are reclassified as “Public Areas” available for public assembly, marches and protests. These areas had been classified as “Limited Areas” and could only be used for “non-amplified speech and expression” in the previous addendum.
Senate Chair Jeff Trailer said the resolution, which passed with a 29-1 vote, would be sent to the decision-makers.
“The resolution is a way for the Senate to communicate a sense of what our opinion is on the matter,” Trailer said. “It doesn’t have any binding effect; it’s not a policy that has a direct consequence. It’s a statement of opinion.”
The Senate is composed of faculty, staff, administrators, and students and “guided by the principles of shared governance.”
The resolution also takes issue with the restriction on mask-wearing during student protests. The CSU umbrella policy prohibits people from wearing a mask “with the intent of intimidating and harassing any person or group, or for the purpose of evading or escaping discovery, recognition, or identification in the commission of violations of applicable University policy or local, state, or federal laws.”
Chico State’s resolution questions those restrictions. “It’s unclear who defines intent and what limitations there are to define negative intent … and the interim TPM policy inappropriately connects masking to criminal activity …,” it states.
Senator Timothy Sistrunk, a professor in the History Department, helped draft the resolution. He stated during the meeting that multiple CSU universities offered resolutions for the CSU’s consideration, and his subcommittee drew from San Francisco State’s language and incorporated points specific to Chico State to shape the resolution.
The Senate made several amendments to the resolution during the Oct. 31 discussion, including the removal of a clause that mentioned a Senate resolution that passed in May and showed support to demonstrators protesting the war on Gaza.
“To me there is no progress until the Chancellor’s policy is repealed” — Adin White
Bryce Ingersoll was part of a student group that produced a document to call for TPM reform before the Senate meeting. Ingersoll expressed his disappointment that the Senate struck out the clause about Gaza protests. “Some senators said it was because it was unnecessarily controversial in a document where most of the Senate just cared about collective governing,” he said.
“But all that clause did was explicitly provide protections in an action that is already implicitly protected.”
Ingersoll mentioned several points that were missed in the resolution: “There’s still stuff that we want in the resolution (and) that we have problems with, such as loosening the definition of disruption, criminalization of policy infringements.”
Public Health professor Lindsay Briggs indicated she was glad Chico State revised its addendum, and placed the largest share of blame for the policy on the Chancellor’s office.
“It needed to be changed,” she said. “And the university heard us. That’s positive, within a very negative situation … It’s the Chancellor’s office that dictated. It’s the Chancellor’s office that is trying to restrict our freedom.”
Briggs said she has been upset since “the CSU and different campuses become more and more authoritarian, and way less about valuing faculty perspectives and staff perspectives, under the guise of saying, like, ‘We’re trying to do this to make things better for students.’”
Adin White, an anthropology major, organized the student group that called for TPM reform prior to the Oct. 31 Senate meeting. He believes the resolution is a step in the right direction, but not enough.
“To me there is no progress until the Chancellor’s policy is repealed,” White said. “I hope the Chancellor’s office can take the policy back to the table and invite stakeholders there to be a part of the process of creating the document.”
Yucheng Tang is a California Local News Fellow reporting for ChicoSol.
Some students and faculty worry; university officials say nothing has changed
by Yucheng Tang | Posted September 26, 2024
photo by Yucheng Tang
Professor Lindsay Briggs makes a suggestion at the Sept. 25 campus forum.
This story was updated Sept. 28 as more detail on the policy emerged.
On a list of 174 locations on the Chico State campus, only three are listed as “Public” that are available for sound-amplified assembly, marches, protests, and debate between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. weekdays by reservation, based on the newly-introduced, California State University (CSU) Interim Time Place Manner policy.
However, university spokesman Andrew Staples said Sept. 27 that outside spaces at Chico State, including Trinity Commons, can be used for “demonstrations, protest etc.” during campus operating hours that are 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily if the area hasn’t already been reserved. A document sent to ChicoSol Sept. 28 called “Addendum Specifics” says those areas can be used for “non-amplified speech and expression.”
The policy was discussed during the Sept. 25 forum held by Chico State’s Office of Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion. Around 60 people attended the forum in Colusa Hall. The policy was established for all CSU campuses to regulate the use of university property.
Joseph Morales, university diversity officer, explained that the CSU Chancellor’s office developed the framework, and each university was asked to prepare a campus-specific addendum detailing how the policy would be implemented.
Based on the addendum posted by Chico State, university property is divided into “Public,” “Limited,” and “Non-Public.” Only “Public” locations are available for sound-amplified free speech activities, and the addendum’s page 2 restricts usage in Limited areas.
“You would agree the sidewalk outside the BMU (Bell Memorial Union) is a public area, right?” asked a student attending the forum. “But it is listed under your list of properties as a limited area. Can you help us understand how that’s fostering discourse and freedom of speech?”
The new policy also listed prohibited activities on university property, including camping, overnight demonstrations and overnight loitering.
Morales stressed that administrators will stick to the principle of “viewpoint and content neutrality,” which means they can only regulate where, when and how to hold the activities, but cannot interfere with the topic and viewpoints of the activities themselves.
Several audience members associated the new policy with a perceived crackdown on pro-Palestinian protests. One student said: “We all know that this policy is only now being put into effect to deny students’ ability to protest the CSU – after [spring] protests against Israel’s active genocide of Palestinian people. By this policy, protest is only permitted when and if the CSU deems it appropriate.”
Morales responded to the student: “My understanding is that many of the things that are understood to be new were already in existence. They just hadn’t been stated explicitly, like you can’t bring explosives to campus. Nothing happened in the last two months. ”
According to the CSU website, “While the requirements in the policy are not new and are already in place in many respects at each university and at the Chancellor’s Office, they are newly merged into a systemwide policy.”
“No building or campus space has been shifted into a new category because of the new policy” — Andrew Staples
Chico State’s Staples responded to a question from ChicoSol by email. “Overnight camping was not previously allowed under campus policy,” Staples noted. “Public, limited, and non-public is how space on campus is categorized. No building or campus space has been shifted into a new category because of the new policy.”
Some students and faculty members asked questions about what could be negative implications of the new policy on freedom of speech.
“For things that have been more politically contentious, I think I’m really afraid that it will just leave the possibility in the future open for those kinds of things to be quashed in silence,” said Adin White, an anthropology student at Chico State.
“It’s not really the details of the policy but the spirit of the policy, especially when it was enforced without much interaction with stakeholders like students and faculty, that really concerns me,” White said.
White told ChicoSol that he was worried the forum was just an opportunity for people to let off steam.
Michelle Rose, a political science professor at Chico State, also expressed concern.
“I’m concerned, given the context of the protests around the country, that the more explicit directions are also meant to facilitate the easier arrest of folks who are choosing to exercise their right to free speech.”
Aaron Schwartz, executive vice president of Associated Students, told ChicoSol after the forum: “From my understanding in the meeting, you were never able to protest in those non-public and limited areas, but now they are put in the written policy so the school can enforce it.”
“The misunderstanding that I have and what I am trying to figure out is how they are deciding what buildings are public or private. 25 Main Street is a non-public building on the list; it’s the Chico State Enterprises. How are you arguing it isn’t a building designed for public use while its mission statement is to go out into the community and engage?”
Revisions, he said, are “only gonna happen if students continue to remain vigilant and stay on top of this.”
Seema Sehrawat, the chief of staff to the university president, spoke during the forum: “I see that it says there are only three public areas. And I see that you are all saying that it’s restrictive. It’s our responsibility to go back, take this feedback and work on that. I heard that loud and clear.”
Yucheng Tang is a California Local News Fellow reporting for ChicoSol.
This story was clarified to note that protests and demonstrations involving sound-amplification are the activities limited to public areas. The spelling of Adin White’s name was also corrected.
Pae Xiong: "We are trying to tell people that we exist"
by Yucheng Tang | Posted September 13, 2024
photo by Yucheng Tang
Hmong dancers during the Thursday Night Market.
On stage at City Plaza, 13 Hmong girls from Oroville, dressed in traditional attire, performed a dance to the Hmong song, “Hello, Hello, I Like You.” Below the stage, audience members took pictures, recorded video and applauded. This was the opening performance at the Sept. 12 Homeland Celebration event.
“Our girls love to perform. It’s a good experience for them,” Passion Chue told ChicoSol. She works as a program supervisor at Oroville’s Hmong Cultural Center and oversees all youth programs, including the dancing team. Chue said the girls practice dancing at the center after school in a limited space and without mirrors.
Chue decided to bring her dancers to the event when she received the invitation about one month ago. “Even though the population of Hmong people is somewhat big in Butte County, a lot of people still don’t know our culture,” said Chue.
Her colleague, Pae Xiong, tabled during the event. Xiong said she was delighted when some people walked to their table and showed interest in Hmong embroidery. “It’s still difficult for Hmong people to be seen. We are trying to tell people that we exist, and let people understand how we live our lives,” Xiong said.
Sonny Baird, one of the event organizers, told ChicoSol that the idea for the event sprouted within his church group. The group’s goal was to have organizations from around Chico set up tables to showcase their cultural backgrounds. However, Baird emphasized that the Homeland Celebration was not a church-sponsored event; it was organized independently. Organizers researched online, looked into the local cultures, identified the groups representing them, and then sent out emails. Eventually, 10 tables and six performances were scheduled.
Baird said they didn’t end up including groups from every continent and would like to see more South American and European groups in the future. The biggest challenge was “getting on people’s schedule early enough because they all participate in different events as well.”
Since they didn’t have enough budget to advertise, they chose to run Homeland at night market time so that people who come to the market could stop by and enjoy the event. Organizing the event only cost them about $500 dollars, said Baird. “We already had the tables and chairs; everybody brought their own stuff. The lights were the most expensive part.”
The co-organizer, Tamba Sellu, played the drum on stage to showcase the culture of his homeland, Sierra Leone. He also invited his friends to perform with him, including Damilola Afolabi, who danced to the rhythm of Sellu’s drumming.
Afolabi is from Nigeria, where he said there are more than 200 unique tribes. Growing up in such a diverse environment made him appreciate cultural diversity even more. “When I come to new places and hear people talk about their culture, my heart bubbles. And this event allows me to see the identity and rich heritage of different people living in our communities, and to get a taste of the world in this part of America.”
Afolabi became the star of the Sept. 12 event. He danced from the stage to the square, with children joining in, followed by more and more adults, including a few elders. After his performance, a few kids ran up and gave him a hug.
Afolabi appreciates Chico’s diversity.
“Chico gives me the impression that I’m in a small city, but I am also in a big city,” he said.
Lily Bergeron, 21, president of the Filipino American Student Organization at Chico State, said she was a bit nervous because they usually hold tabling events on campus, but this time they were trying to spread awareness of Filipino culture to the general public.
Handgame Set, who sat at the table representing the Mechoopda Indian Tribe, said that his favorite artifact on display was the clapper stick, a musical instrument in his tribe. He had brought a stereo to the event and played a song for ChicoSol, where the clapper stick produced a crisp, beautiful sound. “When I play the instrument, the dancers start to dance,” he said with a smile.
Sam Westover, 22, who grew up in the Chico area, said it was her first time at such an event in this area. “It’s really cool to get people together and know more about each other,” she said.
Yucheng Tang is a reporter at ChicoSol and a California Local News Fellow.
