President Richard Yao of California State University Channel Islands

 

5/03/2022

President Richard Yao

c/o Office of the President 

California State University Channel Islands

1 University Drive

Camarillo, CA  93012

Dear President Yao,

My name is Matt Winick, an Asian American from Ann Arbor, Michigan and I have a strong interest in learning history, social justice, diversity, environment, and education reform. In these subjects, I like to learn the need for civil rights to be stronger to reduce discrimination, protect the environment from pollution, have diversity to accept people who are different or who come from a different background or have a different skills, improve education to make learning a better tool, and many others.  President Yao, the main reason I’m wiring you a letter is to explain how I find your work as President of California State University Channel Islands and your work on diversity inclusion to be very inspiring to me. 

In January 2021, I was amazed on how you made history on becoming the 1st Chinese Filipino American be appointed to become President of California State University Channels Islands.  In your current role as President of California State University Channel, I truly appreciate on how you are a strong supporter and advocate for civil rights by advocating for people with disabilities’ rights and expressing the need to make civil rights stronger to reduce discrimination in order to protect women, minorities, and people with disabilities. Also to improve civil rights, I liked on how you work to expand on rules to combat against bullying and harassment.  On people with disabilities; rights, I like on how you work to expand courses for people with disabilities to learn different subjects including basic introductory courses to help them learn. Supporting accommodations to help students with disabilities like extra time on exams or use educational software to help improve comprehension, expanding tutoring services to provide students with help on their assignments from tutors, and implementing more liberal arts, arts, humanities, history, and basic classes to make education diverse along with make more opportunities for students to find subjects that they want to learn are great ways to improve education reform. Also on education reform I like on how you support literacy programs to help students including adults improve on their comprehension skills or gain literacy skills.  On diversity, I like on how you work on hiring women, minorities, and people with disabilities to work for the college and expand on programs to help educate staff members and students about different cultures along with the need for diversity to accept people who are different or come from a different background. Also to improve diversity in education I like on how you expanded more basic or introductory classes to different subjects, expand on arts, history, and humanities to help accept students with different skills to learn different subjects or assist students to explore different courses to their degree.  Another thing that I like about your work as President of California State University Channels Islands is how you expand on more research programs to help students get engage to learn how different topics can make a great difference for society, implement mental health services to help students who struggle with mental health or other people who live in the Fresno area to get the care they need, push for more scholarships to help low income students or minorities get assistance on getting into college or affording supplies, create Equity Task Force to find ways to combat against racial injustice while find ways to expand on making education more accessible to people who come from disadvantage communities along with who come from different communities, and heavily express the need to reduce high tuition cost to help students from paying high costs in order to get a college. On your activism, like on how you are how you are a continuous strong supporter of civil rights causes, advocate for environmental protection to reduce pollution, emphasize the need for more liberal arts in colleges, heavily advocate for the need for arts, history, and literature to be more present in society,  importance of having diversity play a role in education, and express the need for immigration reform to help protect immigrants, dreamers, and refugees from being oppressed. Also I like on how you use your role as an Asian American to help advocate including support Asian Americans rights including Asian American with disabilities’ rights and express the need for funds to help repair the Asian American community

President Yao, have autism with a learning disability. Having a disability is hard for me because I have trouble comprehending on learning different advance subjects, sometimes I struggle to communicate my thoughts, and get teased. Also with a disability I have struggles on trying to understand how society works due to my struggle with comprehension and I get bullied by women including adults about having a disability.  Your commitment to be a strong supporter of civil rights including people with disabilities’ rights really inspires me to work hard on my disability. Being an Asian American with a disability is hard for me because some Asians and some Asian Americans get judgmental about me being different from them or not meeting their standards. Also your role as an Asian and being an advocate along with a supporter of Asians with disabilities’ rights and Asian Americans with disabilities’ rights gives me confidence about being an Asian American with a disability when there are challenges. I enjoy watching youtube videos of you talking about how diversity inclusion can play a role at improving society including education. Your role as current President of California State University Channel Islands and your activism  gives me motivation to continue to history, social justice, diversity, environment, and education reform. My future goal is to someday work in these areas to help emphasize the need for civil rights to be stronger to reduce discrimination, protect the environment from pollution, have diversity to accept people who are different or who come from a different background or have a different skills, improve education to make learning a better tool, and many others. 

I strongly believe that you are making a great difference for society and education. I’m amazed on ho you made history on becoming the first Asian American to be leader of California State University Channel Island Also I’m very proud on how you are working hard to improve education reform, expand on diversity, work on other improvements in social justice, and many others. You have inspire me to work hard on my disability, learn more about your work, and continue to learn different subjects. Thanks for taking the time to read my letter, working hard to make a great difference, and inspiring me. Please continue to work hard to make a great difference.

Sincerely,

Matt Winick