MERCED, Calif. — A group of more than 50 UC Merced students and alumni protested against the layoffs of three campus leaders who led DEI programs on campus Tuesday.
They chanted words like “racist,” “justice,” and “rights” as they climbed three flights of stairs to the Chancellor’s office.
The three directors put on administrative leave Sept. 5, and subsequently laid off, oversaw the Calvin E. Bright Success Center and the university’s Office of Social Justice Initiatives. Following the layoffs, campus officials emailed staff to say both centers would be “reconstructed.”
Both offices housed several programs that serve sensitive groups, including formerly incarcerated students, students who are the first in their families to attend college, former foster youth, low income and previously homeless students, racial minorities, and students without legal immigration status.
“It's not just about [how] three people that mean a lot to me have now been, in my opinion, unjustly removed from their positions here on this campus,” said Letha Jarman, a student worker at the Bright Center and president of the Black Student Coalition. “[I’ve been] struggling with the overwhelming feeling that, at the end of the day, people like me or people who look like me — we are expendable.”
UC Merced’s decision to lay off officials and reconstruct the centers comes at a time of heightened scrutiny for diversity, equity, and inclusion programs under President Donald Trump’s administration. In February, the administration sent a “Dear Colleague” letter to educational institutions calling for the end of race-conscious programs under threat of cancelling federal funding.
Since then, colleges and universities in California and across the country resorted to using different methods to comply with this ultimatum, including changing titles of centers and websites that discuss diversity.
At UC Merced, students said they are standing up and demanding reinstatement of both the staff and the centers. UC Merced officials declined to answer any of KVPR’s questions about the situation, including why these directors were let go.
Students say beloved staff ‘abruptly left’
The three leaders who lost their jobs all held prominent duties in their prospective departments.
Chad Williams served as the assistant dean of students and the director of the Bright Success Center; Danielle Bermudez was the associate director for educational equity and access; and Camerina Morales was the director of the social justice office. A fourth employee was moved out of one of these offices to a different department on campus, according to an email obtained by KVPR and The Merced FOCUS.
The week after the layoffs, interim associate vice chancellor and dean of students for student affairs, Le’Trice Curl, told staff in the email that programs and services within both spaces would be reconstructed to fall under different departments on campus. The programs have been split between the office of Community Engagement and Belonging and Student Affairs.
“This reorganization has been designed with care to better align functional areas with their core missions, enhance the student experience, and ensure responsible stewardship of our resources in a constrained budget environment,” Curl wrote. “As part of this restructuring, four staff positions are being eliminated or repurposed to create permanent budget savings and reduce administrative layers, with no anticipated disruption to student-facing services.”
According to multiple sources interviewed by KVPR, the three staff were notified of their terminations one by one in the afternoon and were instructed to grab their things and leave campus immediately.
Bermudez told KVPR her superiors told her she was laid off due to “budget cuts and reorganization.” She was told she was chosen for layoffs because she worked at the university for less than five years and was “non-policy covered,” or not protected by a union, she said.
“It was a big kind of shock,” Bermudez said.
When students slowly started to realize that she wasn’t returning, the Bright Success Center turned into confusion and chaos, she said.
“Some of them were crying,” Bermudez said. “A few others were just more confused or upset.”
Bermudez said the three positions were critical to student success.
“It wasn't just about the job for us. We saw ourselves in the students at UC Merced and we know how difficult it was for us to navigate higher education,” said Bermudez, who was the first in her family to attend college. “…. We were their ear if something happened or if they needed guidance on something or even just celebrating their successes too.”
Students working at the time of the layoff notices described the day like a “dream” — including Jaylin Doxey, who was one of the students who began to cry.
“It wasn't wrapping around my head… what was going on, because this is so random,” Doxey, 21, said. “It's just abrupt. They abruptly left. There was no communication…. And then I'm just sitting here, and I didn't even get to say goodbye.”
In the days following the incident, student workers said they haven’t been able to properly serve students who come in for help because the staff members laid off were often their next point of contact.
“It's just been nonstop students who come in,” said Letha Jarman, who does administrative work at the Bright Center. “They're frustrated because something's happening on campus, and then they leave even more frustrated.”
Black students say spaces, staff saved them
Members of the Black Student Union took to social media last week to express their dismay with the university’s decision to lay off staff and dismantle both departments. In a letter addressed to University of California and UC Merced representatives, students demanded the reinstatement of all three campus leaders and the Bright Success Center.
“These three student affairs leaders have guided, influenced, and supported scholars in ways that other campus departments and individuals have not,” the letter states. “We, standing strong, are here to express the voice of the student body here at the University of California, Merced, to advocate for the three influential members of the University of California, Merced campus.”
By Tuesday, the Instagram post amassed more than 1,600 likes, 600 shares, and 300 reposts. Students also shared a petition and secured a meeting with Tonantzín Oseguera, the vice chancellor for student affairs and engagement.
But Jarman and others say they’ve been grieving the loss of these staff members. She remembers a time when she didn’t think she could continue to go to UC Merced because she felt like she didn’t belong. She said Chad Williams, the Bright Center’s former director, pulled her out of it.
“[Williams] was the one that really fought and he was like ‘I don't know what I need to do, but I will do everything in my power to try to help you in all these different places,’” Jarman, 20, said. “‘You're going to get that degree. You're going to finish because we need people like you out here in this world and in these different spaces.’”
Brenden Wilson, another student worker and president of the Black Student Union, said Williams helped him to his feet after he’d spent a lot of time isolated from others during his first year in college. Now, he doesn’t know what his future looks like.
“It doesn't sit right on my chest at all,” Wilson, 20, said. “It's hard to sleep at night. I can barely sit and even concentrate on one thing. I'm afraid of what's to come next with my final years of college.”
Protesters urge campus community to stay vigilant, vocal
At the protest, students and alumni expressed what it’s been like for them since the layoffs.
“It felt like my safest space in the Merced community was being torn apart,” said Jessica Alvarez McDaniels, 21, a student worker who worked under Williams and Bermudez.
Her friend and colleague, Kelly Flores, said she wanted to be a part of what comes next.
“It was kind of a slap in the face because [these directors] had done so much,” Flores, 21, said.
Sean Malloy, a long time faculty member at UC Merced, protested alongside the students. In his 20 years on campus, he said he hasn’t seen university leaders do what they say they stand for.
“This university loves to talk about how much it cares about first-generation students,” Malloy said. “It loves to talk about diversity. It loves to talk about protecting its students at college. It loves to talk about being an engine of socio-economic mobility here in the Central Valley.… The talk has not matched the action.”
Despite his beliefs, he told students they should still fight for the institution to follow through on its mission — and that he’d fight with them.
“If we want this to be the kind of university we can actually be proud of, it's not going to happen from the building down there,” Malloy said, referencing the Chancellor’s office. “It's not going to happen from the Chancellor's office, or the Provost’s office, or any of the deans. It's going to happen because people organize, and they organize across the lines that the university uses to divide us.”
