Dear Elizabeth Cowell, Chancellor Larive, and Interim Campus Provost and iCP/EVC Koch,

We write to you with deep concern regarding the recent termination of Dr. Rebecca Hernandez, the University’s first Community Archivist at the McHenry Library and the shuttering of the Community Archiving Program. The immediacy and lack of communication around this decision raise serious concerns about the University’s commitments to community engagement, which is built on the foundations of transparency, trust, and mutual respect. We urge you to reverse this decision and honor the commitments made by UC Santa Cruz to its partners in the community when creating the Community Archiving Program.

UC Santa Cruz has long prided itself on being a social changemaker—an institution that not only advances knowledge, but also serves as a trusted steward of the stories and experiences of those historically marginalized. The decision to end the Community Archiving Program and Dr. Hernandez’s role so abruptly jeopardizes that very identity. It risks undermining years of trust carefully built between the University and the communities whose histories and voices Dr. Hernandez has worked to preserve. The timing is especially problematic for a variety of reasons, mostly notably because Dr. Hernandez’s groundbreaking work as the Community Archivist will be recognized in an exhibit at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History, opening on November 21, 2025. Inspired by the annual HERstory award, for which Dr. Hernandez was the first recipient, this permanent addition to the History Gallery will highlight the remarkable women who have shaped Santa Cruz County’s past, present, and future.

As long-standing practitioners and supporters of community-engaged scholarship, we know that the foundation of our work is trust. Our community partners are extremely careful about who they trust, and for good reason. Universities, including our own, have histories of extractive research that serves academia but not the goals or desires of the community. Dr. Hernandez has been a bridge between the University and these communities, particularly the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band; closing the Community Archiving Program and removing Dr. Hernandez sends the message to the community that these relationships are expendable. The resulting harm extends far beyond one position—it challenges the university’s commitment to its public mission, and reaches into the very heart of UCSC’s reputation and credibility as a socially responsible institution.

It is our community partners who make possible many of UCSC’s most impactful experiential learning and research programs. For example, the Community Archiving Program’s work documenting and archiving the Watsonville Cannery Strike is a project connecting campus units (UCSC Center for Racial Justice and the library), the community (Resource Center for Nonviolence) and UCSC undergraduates, who are helping collect and archive materials. Severing this connection abruptly not only harms those partners, but also the students and scholars who rely on those relationships for transformative educational experiences and their work redefining research production in a modern university.

We respectfully request that the University, in pursuit of its public mission, honor its commitment to the community by continuing to fully fund the Community Archiving Program and Dr. Hernandez’s position. Extending the Community Archivist Program and Dr. Hernandez’s position also recognizes and honors Dr. Hernandez’s 19 years of steadfast commitment to UC, including her invaluable and innumerable contributions to UCSC’s students, scholars, community collaborations, archiving, scholarship and mission through her various positions at the University, including her time as the inaugural Community Archivist and as Director of the American Indian Resource Center.

This extension would signal UCSC’s commitment to ethical partnership, preserving community collaboration, and continuing its community archiving efforts.

We urge you to act in alignment with UCSC’s core values—community, trust, and social responsibility—by choosing a path that honors both our partners and the principles we teach our students.

With respect and concern,
Rebecca London
Professor of Sociology
Faculty Director, Campus + Community

Steve McKay
Professor of Sociology
Faculty Director, Center for Labor and Community

Heather Bullock
Professor of Psychology
Faculty Director, Center for Economic Justice and Action

Pranav Anand
Professor of Linguistics
Faculty Director, The Humanities Institute

Jessica Taft
Faculty Director, Dolores Huerta Research Center for the Americas
Professor of Latin American and Latino Studies

Michael A. McCarthy
Faculty Director, The Community Studies Program
Associate Professor of Sociology

Galina Hale
Faculty Director, Institute for Social Transformation
Professor of Economics and Coastal Science and Policy

Christine Hong
Faculty Director, Center for Racial Justice
Professor of Literature and Critical Race and Ethnic Studies

Ned LeBlond
Managing Director, Campus + Community and the Institute for Social Transformation

Deborah Gould
Faculty Co-Director, Center for Cultural Studies
Professor and Chair of Sociology

Alison Hope Alkon
Teaching Professor of Community Studies
Department of Sociology

and the undersigned members of the campus and broader Santa Cruz community.