A Cal State Report Says Hate Crimes Are Low, But Trustees And Experts Issue Warning

California's higher education system is facing a hate problem — specifically, that experts say more information is needed about what constitutes "hate" on university campuses, as legislators push administrators to act in response to various incidents.

Last Tuesday, for instance, California State University trustees welcomed an “amazingly low” number of hate crimes and hate violence reported in the Annual Systemwide Report on Hate Incidents on Campus.

For 2022, campuses altogether tallied 13 hate crime incidents and six hate violence incidents across a system with nearly half a million students.

Trustees said those numbers cannot possibly paint the complete picture.

“[The report is] coming at a time that we are really all feeling very much the events in the Middle East,” said trustee Julia Lopez. “We live in a time right now where there's a lot of hate and prejudice and intolerance.”

What isn't captured?

The time allotted to the CSU report included presentations from university leaders from San Jose State, CSU San Bernardino, and San Francisco State explaining to trustees how campus programs help strengthen students’ sense of belonging, the types of communication administrators engage in after campus incidents, as well as the value of anti-discrimination training.

Afterwards, trustee Jack McGrory returned the discussion to the report’s tracking of hate incidents.

“I'm not buying it, there's gotta be something more going on on the campuses,” he said. McGrory said he believes there’s hate and discrimination on campuses that the report isn’t capturing because it only tracks federally defined violence and crime.

“I think if we had some lower tier of reporting on incidents … that don't get to the threshold of the federal definition, I think would be helpful for us,” he said.

Hate crimes and incidents are underreported

McGrory’s comments underline what researchers have been pointing out for years: there’s an underreporting of hate in general and on campuses in particular. And the absence of that information deprives university administrators of the facts necessary to create specific program or approaches to address the issue.

“Trustee McGrory is correct that we are not capturing all hate crimes and all hate incidents and we have to do better,” said Brian Levin, founding director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Cal State San Bernardino.

Levin says the main problem is that the CSU report doesn’t capture as many incidents of hate, bias, and discrimination regardless of whether the incidents were criminal.

“I think what we have to do is redouble our efforts to not only get crimes reported but non-criminal incidents reported as well,” he said.

Driver strikes university student, people remove hostage fliers

Campuses have had to confront many kinds of hate incidents over the past several years, like anti-Asian hate during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The war between Israel and Hamas has been deeply felt in Southern California and has led to online tensions and real-life conflicts.

Police are investigating whether a driver who struck and injured an Arab Muslim student at Stanford University on Nov. 3 committed a hate-motivated crime.

USC student media reported that university employees and others removed posters of people who are feared held hostage by Hamas.

“Is tearing down a flier vandalism? I don't think a law enforcement officer would say they're going to waste their time on that,” said Edward Dunbar, professor of psychology at UCLA and author of “Hate Unleashed: America's Cataclysmic Change.”

“Is it a message and is it a statement to people of a community and of a larger community like a university? Of course it is,” he said. "Does it have an impact upon people feeling safe? Of course it does. Does it affect the attitudes of people trying to attend university? Absolutely.”

A survey could capture bias and discrimination

Of interest to university staff who monitor legislation: Assembly Bill 644, which would create a campus climate survey seeking student views on hate crimes at all public community colleges, California State University, and University of California campuses. Dunbar and Levin said that’s a good idea.

Another good idea, they said: collaboration between colleges and the public agencies that have been working for decades to reduce bias and hate in neighborhoods.

Levin pointed out research by a CSU colleague that describes the benefits of collaboration between human relations commissions and Cal State campuses.

The University of California’s last posted campus climate survey is dated 2014. It includes results of student views on bias on campus.

Dozens of California colleges, including Los Angeles community colleges, participate in the National Assessment of Collegiate Campus Climates, run out of the USC Race and Equity Center. That survey captures information about racial stressors.

"We should be routinely collecting information on how students are experiencing the racial campus climate," said Royel M. Johnson, an associate professor of higher education and director of the NACCC. Johnson said the proposed legislation is a good first step, but, "the second step is the most important, and that is how institutions act."

State legislators urge UC, CSU to take action

The day before the CSU hate crime report presentation, the California Legislative Jewish Caucus publicly called on UC and CSU leaders to stem anti-Semitic acts on campus and address discrimination against Jewish college students.

On Friday, the ten chancellors of the University of California campuses, as well as the system’s president, issued a statement condemning acts of “bigotry, intolerance, and intimidation” they said have taken place on their campuses. The leaders said anti-Semitism and Islamophobia would not be tolerated at the universities.

“And while words matter a great deal — and we stand firmly by the words we share today — this is also a time for action. Over the coming days, President Drake will announce a series of initiatives to help us address the current climate on our campuses, provide additional support for our students, staff, and faculty, and improve the public discourse on this issue,” the statement said.

Addressing bias on campuses is imperative, Dunbar says, because non-violent incidents of hate, bias, and discrimination could lead to violent incidents, but on their own undermine a student’s sense of well being and could lead a student to believe that they do not belong on the campus.

Adolfo Guzman-Lopez is a lecturer at CSU Long Beach.