Brown Issues Organization at CSU East Bay

By Erika Martine, STAFF WRITER

Brown Issues, an organization that began in 2007, focuses on finding solutions for the daily matters that the Latino community experiences in the U.S. in regard to immigration policies, education, at-risk youth and underrepresentation.
Brown Issues began at Sacramento City College and has since become a statewide organization with chapters in CSU Sacramento and CSU Los Angeles.
The organization brainstorms possible solutions for these problems in order to begin working on them after presenting the issues students face.
“Cultivating the next generation of Brown Leaders through civic engagement, social-emotional health support and narrative change we will #wakethegiant,” Brown Issues says in their mission statement.
Brown Issues members were invited by campus organizations on Dec. 6 Students for Quality Education and Students United in Solidarity to visit California State University, East Bay.
The event was open to the public and ASI President Myles Watkins and Executive Vice President Daisy Maxion appeared briefly.
The organization began with icebreakers to help open up a conversation which led up to workshop discussions in regards to current issues that students face during their educational journey.
“I joined Brown Issues in high school and I never thought I would go to college,” said Brown Issues member, Kimberly Gudino.
Students shared their discontent with topics such as the lack of advising they receive on campus, the representation of colonization that they claim the CSUEB’s Pioneer Pete mascot stands for and not having a DACA center that supports undocumented students.
“We have to organize and do something about it,” a member, who requested to remain anonymous, said.