Students of Color protest WWU’s inadequate response to racism.

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In 1968, amid growing racial tensions and resentment, the Black Student Union (BSU) issues a letter to WWU president Charles Flora with six demands to address institutional racism at Western: Involve the BSU in plans and decisions affecting black students; provide more financial and academic support for students of color and increase recruitment of students of color; create a BSU Black Studies Committee to bring more diversity to the curriculum; bring more black administrators and faculty to campus, particularly in the music and P.E. departments; and investigate racism in the community, especially in housing.

Following a year of negotiations between the BSU, President Flora, and the WWU Board of Trustees, a College of Ethnic Studies was created. However, the College was never adequately supported and it was closed in only eight years.

Student-led efforts to re-establish an Ethnic Studies program at WWU continued over the years and gained momentum around in the early 2020s. A Department of Ethnic Studies has since been established.