For most of her life, Patrice Amon has bristled at the popular notion that Latino people vote as one monolithic bloc. So when she came across a script last year that delves into that very subject, she knew she had to make it her next stage production. The result is “The Hispanic/Latino/Latina/Latinx/Latine Vote,” a play that will be performed at Cal State San Marcos on Wednesday night. Directed by Amon, the chair of CSUSM’s theater department, the show will take place at 7 p.m. in Room 111 of the Arts Building. Tickets are free. “There’s often an assumption that different parts of the Latino community will all act the same,” Amon said. “There is an abundance of diversity within the community. There’s a variety of languages that are spoken, a wide array of racial identities that we hold, a diversity of religions we practice. In that way, it is overly simplistic to imagine that all Latinos vote in a single bloc. There’s such diversity within the community that our voting practices are often just as diverse as we are.” “The Hispanic/Latino/Latina/Latinx/Latine Vote” centers on Paola Aguilar, a university professor who’s an expert in Latinx studies and who’s in debt from years of fertility treatments. Facing financial strain, she accepts a lucrative offer from a political party seeking to decode and capture the titular vote ahead of an impending election. As Paola navigates the party’s often superficial understanding of her community, the play satirizes the oversimplification of Latino identities. The script was written by Bernardo Cubria, a Mexican playwright who lives in Los Angeles. Cubria based the story on his own experiences of volunteering for the Democratic Party and going through in vitro fertilization with his wife. Amon saw an early reading last January at The Old Globe’s Powers New Voices Festival and decided to produce it through TuYo Theatre, a San Diego company that specializes in Latinx narratives and for which she is co-artistic director. The play opened on Jan. 3 at a high school in Chula Vista, and after the show at CSUSM, it also will be staged at High Tech High and San Diego State. The 90-minute comedy features a cast of six, including Kevane Coleman, the administrative coordinator for the CSUSM art, media and design department who’s also a professional actor, singer and dancer. Coleman plays the role of Bernard, a political adviser who works with three other advisers to recruit Paola to help bolster the party's share of the Latino vote. Bernard and his partner have been on their own IVF journey, and he uses that as a way to befriend Paola after she has a miscarriage.  “When audiences, especially our students, come to see this play, I know many of them will see themselves reflected on stage,” Coleman said. “That representation is powerful and vital to the work we do as artists, but also the work that we do within each of our communities. As the president of the Black Faculty and Staff Association on campus, this production has also been an extraordinary learning experience for me. To be immersed in the Latin community by doing this show, it has broadened my understanding of critical issues facing this community.” Besides faculty in Amon and staff in Coleman, “The Hispanic Vote” also has CSUSM representation in the crew from Abby Chacon, a senior theater major who’s serving as assistant stage manager. About 40 tickets for the show are available. To reserve a seat, email info@tuyotheatre.org. “I think this play will resonate with our students and the larger campus community,” Amon said, “because we all want to live in a world where we spend more time thinking about the nuances of our world.” Media Contact Brian Hiro, Communications Specialist bhiro@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7306

An event showcasing the oral histories of military veterans highlights the spring lineup of the longstanding Arts & Lectures series at Cal State San Marcos.   This season boasts a diverse selection of eight events as the university hosts renowned guest speakers and performances.   Attendees can reserve tickets online via the Arts & Lectures website now.     All-Out Turf & Popping Hip-Hop Cypher and Battle Feb. 5, 1-10 p.m., USU Ballroom A day-long cypher and battle led by two notable hip-hop artists, Johnny Lopez (Johnny 5) and Quentin Robinson (SpecialFX). Born in Oakland, Johnny5 is a Latino professional turf dancer and the founder of TURFinc, a Bay Area company that instills positive changes in the community through dance. SpecialFX is a father of two, a Marine Corps veteran and the founder of Movements 4 Movements. At CSUSM, they will share hip-hop dance and culture during an event that includes guest lectures, dance workshops and a cypher featuring authentic hip-hop dancers, performances, competitions and classes. CSUSM students: Free Faculty/staff/alumni: $5 Community: $10   Songs of the Wayfarer Feb. 15, 7 p.m., Arts 111 “Songs of the Wayfarer” is based on select poems of Rabindranath Tagore, India’s Nobel laureate. Translations from Bengali to English were created by Jayanta Acharya, original music was composed by Mtafiti Imara and dances were choreographed by Anusree Bonnerjee and Cherie Hill. Each step in this collaborative process involved reflections on the central theme: one who goes on a spiritual journey. It’s both an ancient and modern theme found in many disciplines, including literature, religion and mythology. These songs ask questions of what defines us as individuals and as connected humans. CSUSM students: Free Faculty/staff/alumni: $5 Community: $10   From Fungi to the Planet: Complex Systems in Science and Art Feb. 17, noon, USU Ballroom Join a panel of scientific and artistic thinkers for a deep look at the roles of fungi on the planet and microscopic elements within complex systems. Scientists from the Treseder Lab at UC Irvine will examine fungi’s layered relationship to planetary life and discuss how fungi mediate and connect distant ecosystems. David Familian, also from UC Irvine, will introduce life webs and AI as complex systems, a topic that comes to focus in the art exhibition “Future Tense: Art, Complexity and Uncertainty.” Moving across perspectives in art and science, the panelists will reframe how we picture the planet. The lecture will be preceded by a workshop from 10:30-11:30 a.m. CSUSM students: Free Faculty/staff/alumni: Free Community: $5   ‘Bad Child’: Film Screening and Interdisciplinary Panel on Sexual Assault March 4, noon, Arts 111 “Bad Child” is a short documentary about the more intimate, less visible outcomes of enduring repeated childhood sexual abuse. The film focuses on one survivor's reflections while expert interviews place emphasis on the importance of parental and caregiver support. Director Nicole Mendez will discuss the film’s format and its contents, then host an interdisciplinary panel examining impacts of sexual assault, artistic expressions of trauma and resources available to survivors.  Panelists include CSUSM faculty and staff from Student Health & Counseling Services, the Department of Psychology, the School of Arts and more. CSUSM students: Free Faculty/staff/alumni: Free Community: $5   Veterans History Project: An Unveiling of the Journey March 19, 6 p.m., USU Ballroom This event showcasing the oral histories of military veterans offers an intimate look into the personal experiences, challenges and triumphs of veterans from diverse backgrounds. The stories shared will be archived at the Library of Congress and in CSUSM’s Kellogg Library, preserving their legacies for future generations. The keynote speaker is Amy Forsythe, a Marines Corps veteran, Navy reservist and CSUSM alumna. The formal program will be preceded by a veteran/military resource fair and reception at 5 p.m. CSUSM students: Free Military-affiliated community and resource fair guests: Free Faculty/staff/alumni: $5 Community: $10   Jason Magabo Perez April 7, 6 p.m., USU Ballroom Through poetry, performance and video, Jason Magabo Perez – the most recent poet laureate for the City of San Diego – will explore the poetics of memory as an act of anticolonial future-making. Perez is a poet, essayist, performer and author of the book of poetry and prose titled “This is for the mostless” (2017) and the forthcoming book-length poem "I ask about what falls away." An associate professor and director of ethnic studies at CSUSM, Perez will be joined by DJ, music producer, performer and longtime collaborator Shammy Dee.   CSUSM students: Free Faculty/staff/alumni: Free Community: $5   Xtreme Wellness: Keep It Moving April 14, 6 p.m., USU Ballroom In "Xtreme Wellness," featuring the Oside Steppers and guest instructors, you can experience modernized step aerobics set to hip-hop music, offering a fun, intense workout that burns calories, boosts cardiovascular health and relieves stress. The event includes showcases, instructional sessions and practice for all skill levels, from beginner to advanced. In a bonus panel discussion, get to know your instructors and discover how they use movement to enhance their well-being. The panel will be moderated by Daja Marks, a CSUSM alumna, artist/activist and experimental documentarian CSUSM students: Free Faculty/staff/alumni: $5 Community: $7   Educational Equality Now: The Legacy of the Lemon Grove Incident in the Mexican Southwest and the Challenge to Desegregation in the United States April 23, 6 p.m., USU Ballroom The 1931 landmark case Roberto Alvarez v. the Board of Trustees of the Lemon Grove School District was the first successful school desegregation court decision in U.S. history. This lecture by Dr. Robert R. Alvarez Jr., a professor emeritus of ethnic studies at UC San Diego and the son of the lead plaintiff in the case, will review the specific struggle by the Mexican families of Lemon Grove in the greater context of the Mexican challenge to U.S. school desegregation. The case established the rights of children of Mexican immigrants to equal education, despite local, regional and national sentiment that favored not only segregation, but the actual deportation of the Mexican population in the United States. Current educational equity issues for Mexican immigrant and Latino communities will be contextualized through regional data compiled by the National Latino Research Center at CSUSM. CSUSM students: Free Faculty/staff/alumni: $5 Community: $10 Media Contact Brian Hiro, Communications Specialist bhiro@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7306

For most of her life, Patrice Amon has bristled at the popular notion that Latino people vote as one monolithic bloc. So when she came across a script last year that delves into that very subject, she knew she had to make it her next stage production. The result is “The Hispanic/Latino/Latina/Latinx/Latine Vote,” a play that will be performed at Cal State San Marcos on Wednesday night. Directed by Amon, the chair of CSUSM’s theater department, the show will take place at 7 p.m. in Room 111 of the Arts Building. Tickets are free. “There’s often an assumption that different parts of the Latino community will all act the same,” Amon said. “There is an abundance of diversity within the community. There’s a variety of languages that are spoken, a wide array of racial identities that we hold, a diversity of religions we practice. In that way, it is overly simplistic to imagine that all Latinos vote in a single bloc. There’s such diversity within the community that our voting practices are often just as diverse as we are.” “The Hispanic/Latino/Latina/Latinx/Latine Vote” centers on Paola Aguilar, a university professor who’s an expert in Latinx studies and who’s in debt from years of fertility treatments. Facing financial strain, she accepts a lucrative offer from a political party seeking to decode and capture the titular vote ahead of an impending election. As Paola navigates the party’s often superficial understanding of her community, the play satirizes the oversimplification of Latino identities. The script was written by Bernardo Cubria, a Mexican playwright who lives in Los Angeles. Cubria based the story on his own experiences of volunteering for the Democratic Party and going through in vitro fertilization with his wife. Amon saw an early reading last January at The Old Globe’s Powers New Voices Festival and decided to produce it through TuYo Theatre, a San Diego company that specializes in Latinx narratives and for which she is co-artistic director. The play opened on Jan. 3 at a high school in Chula Vista, and after the show at CSUSM, it also will be staged at High Tech High and San Diego State. The 90-minute comedy features a cast of six, including Kevane Coleman, the administrative coordinator for the CSUSM art, media and design department who’s also a professional actor, singer and dancer. Coleman plays the role of Bernard, a political adviser who works with three other advisers to recruit Paola to help bolster the party's share of the Latino vote. Bernard and his partner have been on their own IVF journey, and he uses that as a way to befriend Paola after she has a miscarriage.  “When audiences, especially our students, come to see this play, I know many of them will see themselves reflected on stage,” Coleman said. “That representation is powerful and vital to the work we do as artists, but also the work that we do within each of our communities. As the president of the Black Faculty and Staff Association on campus, this production has also been an extraordinary learning experience for me. To be immersed in the Latin community by doing this show, it has broadened my understanding of critical issues facing this community.” Besides faculty in Amon and staff in Coleman, “The Hispanic Vote” also has CSUSM representation in the crew from Abby Chacon, a senior theater major who’s serving as assistant stage manager. About 40 tickets for the show are available. To reserve a seat, email info@tuyotheatre.org. “I think this play will resonate with our students and the larger campus community,” Amon said, “because we all want to live in a world where we spend more time thinking about the nuances of our world.” Media Contact Brian Hiro, Communications Specialist bhiro@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7306

Welcome to the spring semester! We hope you have enjoyed a restorative winter break. We look forward to our work together this spring in support students’ academic success. Learning & Tutoring Services for Spring 2025 The learning centers are at the heart of the direct academic support the Office of Undergraduate Studies (OUGS) provides CSUSM students. Virtual and in-person academic support is available. For a list of specific courses supported, visit our website. We look forward to working with you to ensure students have access to available academic resources.    STEM Success Center supports courses in these disciplines: Biology, chemistry, computer science, mathematics and physics Writing Center: Supports writing in all courses Supplemental Instruction supports courses in these disciplines: Biology, chemistry, economics, physics, psychology and speech-language pathology NetTutor supports courses in these disciplines: Business, economics, finance, history, psychology, political science, philosophy, Spanish, statistics for human development, and statistics for psychology Language for your Syllabi/Cougar Course Container Faculty are our most powerful partners in engaging students with academic support resources on our campus. To assist you in directing students to campus academic support resources, we have drafted language to include on your syllabi/Cougar Course Containers. We encourage you to share this link with your students. When do we open to students? Students are welcome to visit Learning & Tutoring Services to see the space or study beginning Jan. 21. Tutoring begins Jan. 27 and is open Mondays through Thursdays from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. and Fridays from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Where? The second floor of the Extended Learning Building. The STEM Success Center is in ELB 250. The Writing Center is in ELB 201 for in-person tutoring (see our website for virtual support options). Do students visit the academic learning centers? Yes. Supported by roughly 120 trained peer educators, the STEM Success Center, Writing Center, Supplemental Instruction (SI) program, and NetTutor supported more than 19,000 student visits during the 2023-24 academic year. This includes an 8.8% increase in unique visits from the 2022-23 academic year.  Nearly 7,000 students visited Learning & Tutoring Services in Fall 2024. Thank you, faculty and staff, for directing students to these learning centers and for your key role in recommending students to serve as peer educators in Learning & Tutoring Services. We can support many more students, so please continue to direct them to us. To what effect? Data suggest that students who make at least five visits to a single learning center per semester in support of a specific course tend to earn higher grades. Visiting the learning centers early and often is sage advice. In the words of one of our peer educators, “The more you go, the more you know.”  Friendly Suggestions: Add this language to your syllabi and Canvas course containers. Encourage students to stop by LTS during the first week of the semester to get acquainted. They can simply come by to look around. Encourage students to make use of the free tutoring at least once during weeks 1-3. Remind your students that LTS is a safe space to learn. Encourage them to bring a friend with them when they visit LTS. Remind your students that with regular visits to LTS early and often throughout the semester, their learning will be deeper, and their GPA will likely be higher.  Feel free to reach out to us with your questions and suggestions.  In his role as assistant dean, Adam Petersen supervises Learning & Tutoring Services. You can reach him at apetersen@csusm.edu. For Learning & Tutoring Services questions, contact Evan Smith (esmith@csusm.edu), Learning & Tutoring Services Director. For Writing Center questions, contact Allison Reyes (ajreyes@csusm.edu), Associate Director of LTS for Writing Support. For STEM Success Center questions, contact Paulina Coronado (pcoronado@csusm.edu),  Associate Director of LTS for STEM Support. For Supplemental Instruction (SI) questions, contact Alex Picasso (apicasso@csusm.edu), SI Coordinator.  We know that the more students believe they belong, the better they do academically.  Thank you for all you do to enrich this vibrant learning community. Best wishes for a wonderful spring semester. Dawn M. Formo Dean, Undergraduate Studies Adam Petersen Assistant Dean, Undergraduate Studies