Description

One of CIC's primary activities was to hold biweekly meetings called "community dialogues" to discuss broad issues such as racism, police sensitivity, education, and employment discrimination within the city of San Diego. This meeting took place 2 days after the assassination of Robert Kennedy. In a prior meeting, an Interim Committee of the CIC drew up a bill of particulars detailing specific concerns with the education of minority students in San Diego. This bill was then presented to the board of education for its response. At this meeting, school personnel responded to it, presenting several initiatives and programs being implemented to address those concerns, namely, the quality of instruction, counseling and advising services, discipline, and curriculum content. Mexican-American and Asian spokespersons expressed disappointment that these programs only targeted African- American students, and also eschewed the absence of Mexican- American school personnel in the administration. School personnel also presented a 5-year longitudinal study nearing completion, which dealt with the drop-out rates of minority students, since concern had been expressed about the high drop-out rate of Mexican Americans from Sweetwater District secondary schools. The final report was expected to come out in the next 3 or 4 months, ostensibly offering more insight into why the rate was so high. Finally, the CIC discussed upcoming hearings in the San Diego City Council concerning the fate of the CIC, and whether it was to be replaced by a public human relations commission. Strong sentiments were presented about the pitfalls of becoming a government-controlled agency in contrast to its current existence as an independent, non-profit organization. The meetings were moderated by CIC Executive Director Carroll Waymon, and his voice is often the first one heard in the audio recordings of the meetings. The tape constitutes the minutes, but a summary consists of six pages of handwritten notes on stenographic-notebook paper, with tape-recorder-counter numbers on the left (1-518) next to speakers' names, and identifications, actions, comments, Gregg shorthand, etc. on the right.