Language barrier: Sacramento State was only CSU campus to offer these classes. Not anymore

Sacramento State University has stopped offering Punjabi language classes for the upcoming fall semester. The college is the only one in the California State University 23-campus system to offer the courses.

Students and the community found out about the cancellation when one student who tried to register for the class failed to find it on the class registration platform.

Nearly 10,000 people have signed a petition to call for the class to be reinstated.

Beginning in 2003, Sacramento State is the only CSU campus with the Punjabi language program. According to class instructor Amrik Singh, Sacramento State has had about 1,000 students participate since the inception, including those of Punjabi heritage and more than 200 non-Punjabi heritage students.

According to the university’s website, Punjabi language has a history of more than 100 years in California. The Punjabi-speaking community in Sacramento County is one of the largest growing communities in California, according to the Jakara Movement, a Sikh community organization in California with collegiate chapters on more than 15 University of California and CSU campuses. 2018 Census data shows that Punjabi is the sixth-most spoken language in Sacramento. It is one of the most spoken Asian languages in the greater Sacramento region which includes Placer, Yolo and Sutter counties, as stated by the Jakara Movement.

The interest in the language at Sacramento State will only continue to increase over time, wrote Naindeep Singh, Jakara Movement executive director, in a letter addressing Sacramento State President Robert S. Nelsen.

The process to not inform the community or seek other remedies has been especially alarming, Singh wrote May 4.

As of Monday afternoon, an online petition to save Punjabi at Sacramento State has garnered more than 9,700 signatures within three weeks. Gursharanjit Singh, president of the Sacramento State Sikh Student Association and the advocacy director of the California Sikh Youth Alliance, who started the petition, said many people followed up with sending emails to the dean of arts and to Nelsen to plead for the class to be offered this fall.

A senior at Sacramento State, Singh took the class in 2018. As a first-generation Punjabi American, Singh said he’d lost touch with the language, as he cannot practice with his grandparents, native Punjabi speakers who live in India.

The class at Sacramento State changed that.

“It helped me connect with my roots, my heritage and traditions, as well as the language to keep fluent conversations,” he said.

Because Sacramento State is the only CSU campus to offer Punjabi classes, Singh was hurt that it’s no longer on the course list.

“It is our duty to preserve it for our generations,” he said. “We couldn’t let Punjabi die out like this.”

A way to connect with roots, culture

Amrik Singh has been teaching the classes since 2006. In the 840 students he has taught, many are of other ethnicities.

Noting a huge population of Punjabis in areas around Sacramento, Stockton and Yuba City, Singh said several people enroll to learn about the community they serve. Some came from Chico or other cities to take the course.

“They can be successful in the workplace of wider knowledge, people and culture,” he said. “Some minimum basic knowledge (of the Punjabi community) can help them make connections with the people.”

Carn Heer, a junior who planned to enroll in Punjabi 1A this fall, said he was disappointed to not have that option.

“I was deprived of something I came to the school for,” Heer said. “And that future generations of kids may be deprived of this experience. There are very few teachers and Dr. Singh is regarded as the best one.”

When he volunteered for a nonprofit doing preparing grocery supply boxes for people impacted by the coronavirus in Sacramento, Heer found many Sikh elderly members don’t speak English; they speak Punjabi.

“It is important, as I need to connect with my culture and people in the truest possible form,” Heer said.

In an interview with The Sacramento Bee, Sheree Meyer, college of arts and letters dean, said that the Punjabi classes for fall fell short because of budget during the COVID-19 crisis, in addition to seeing a drop in enrollment last year, but emphasized that the Punjabi classes are not canceled permanently.

Meyer said university officials are interested in feedback to communicate in planning and execution of course scheduling. She, along with Nelsen and Stephen Perez, vice president of academic affairs, met with community members and a student recently to see if more students are interested to register for the fall classes.

“If more students enroll, we will revisit the possibility of offering the (Punjabi classes) in fall,” she said. “We’d love to continue a dialogue to pertain to real potential enrollment.”

Meyer added that the school is open to options, such as considering offering both the prerequisite 1A course together with the more advanced 1B course in spring.

Gursharanjit Singh said it is an urgent matter to bring awareness to local students.

“This is a luxury and jewel for people who want to reconnect with their roots,” he said. “We need to have this class forever.”

This story was originally published May 25, 2020 at 1:31 PM.