Report 2022-107 Recommendation 5 Responses

Report 2022-107: Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act: The California State University Must Do More to Ensure the Timely Return of Native American Remains and Cultural Items to Tribes (Release Date: June 2023)

Recommendation #5 To: University, California State

To ensure that campuses proactively pursue timely repatriation, the Chancellor's Office should require campuses with more than 100 sets of remains or cultural items to have full time, experienced repatriation coordinators by June 2024.

6-Month Agency Response

Per the recently passed AB 389, California Education Code Section 8028.7(a)(8) also requires having full-time, experienced repatriation coordinators at each campus (by July 1, 2024) and the CSU is working diligently to fill these positions.

The Chancellor's Office has provided samples of position descriptions for experienced repatriation coordinators that are available to the campuses. The sample position descriptions were shared with presidents on December 13, 2023, and stored in a shared folder that all campus NAGPRA coordinators have access to.

Six campuses currently have full-time, experienced repatriation coordinators in place. The remaining 15 campuses with NAGPRA collections are working to identify experienced coordinators and developing a job description by early January 2024. The systemwide CalNAGPRA project manager is checking in with the campuses via one-on-one meetings and/or email communication to monitor campus progress on recruitments.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Pending

60-Day Agency Response

The Chancellor's Office determined that 15 campuses need experienced repatriation coordinators. The Chancellor's Office is developing a standard position description for reparation coordinators which it will share with the campuses.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

All Recommendations in 2022-107

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.