We, the undersigned AMED Minors, AMED Alumni, Friends of AMED, faculty, staff, and community members call on SFSU President Lynn Mahoney and CSU Chancellor Tim White to immediately reinstate three AMED Studies courses that were "hidden" and/or canceled under the cover of "austerity measures" in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The policies and procedures are unfair toward AMED courses, while the minimum enrollment for us is placed at 20 students, the threshold is lower for other programs whose classes are proceeding despite having fewer than 20 students enrolled.

Canceling three out of seven courses planned for fall 2020 risks the viability of the AMED Studies program and deprives SFSU/CSU students of the opportunity to critically learn about Arab and Muslim communities, and effectively censors the study of Palestine in the classroom. Such action contradicts the Spirit of 1968 BSU/TWLF student strike at SF State that called for validating the lived experiences of historically marginalized, erased, and/or understudied communities.

The 1968 student strike then and today's condition highlight the urgent need for teaching and learning about white supremacy, anti-Blackness, Islamophobia, xenophobia, and all forms of racism and racial discrimination against indigenous, Arab, Asian, and Latinx communities.

The three canceled courses are:
1) Introduction to Arab and Arab-American Feminisms
2) The Palestinian Mural and the Art of Resistance
3) Comparative Border Studies: Palestine and Mexico