After several attempts to gain department status, the proposal
from the César E. Chávez Center in Interdisciplinary
Chicana/o Studies remains on the chancellor’s desk because of
a disagreement over the proposed department’s name.
The César Chávez center had hoped to celebrate
approval of its department status along with the new Asian American
studies department, which held its own celebration last
Thursday.
The proposal for the department was approved by all of the
required committees but was halted because of concerns over
attaching a proper name to an undergraduate department.
According to a statement issued by the Office of the Chancellor,
faculty members of the Academic Senate ““ which unanimously
approved the department ““ questioned the name’s
appropriateness, citing that it is unprecedented in the University
of California system to have a person’s name attached to an
academic department.
Reynaldo MacÃas, chairman of the center, said its proposal
was not to add a name to the department, but for the existing
center to gain department status and keep its name.
“Until we get this issue clarified and resolved with the
chancellor, I don’t see how we could celebrate,” he
said.
According to the statement, Chancellor Albert Carnesale has
asked a group of faculty, including MacÃas, to discuss and
recommend the best way to departmentalize and honor the legacy of
the late Chávez.
If they recommend keeping the Chávez name, he will refer
the proposal to the UC Office of the President.
“Throughout the process of departmentalization, Chancellor
Carnesale has expressed his clear and unwavering support for the
creation of a new department of Chicana/o studies and for
preserving and honoring the name of César Chávez at
UCLA,” the statement concluded.
The proposal for the Asian American studies department was
submitted after the César Chávez center’s but
received final approval first, said Don Nakanishi, director of the
Asian American Studies Center.
“(The César Chávez center) actually got approved
by the Academic Senate a month before us, but our proposal has
leapfrogged above theirs because there wasn’t this hang-up
about the name,” he said.
Unlike Asian American studies, whose proposal was to convert the
interdepartmental program into a department, the César
Chávez center already functions as a department and only lacks
the status, MacÃas said.
The César Chávez center has full-time faculty assigned
to it and its own space and staff in Bunche Hall.
“For all intents and purposes we are a department,”
MacÃas said, adding that its departmentalization was much less
of a logistical issue than for Asian American studies.
MacÃas said that by becoming a department, the center hopes
to gain prestige, reduce confusion about its role, normalize the
academic program, and achieve the demands of the hunger strike of
1993, which originally called for the formation of a Chicana/o
studies department.
The César Chávez center was created by the university
as a compromise to end the hunger strike, which began when a
student proposal for a Chicana/o studies department was rejected by
former Chancellor Charles E. Young in April of 1993.
“The creation of a new type of unit that would be like a
department but not have the name of a department left open the
possibility that we would gain department status in the
future,” he said.
MacÃas believes that because the Chávez name was
attached to the center when it was first created, it should not be
removed now.
“It seems like it’s more effort to take (the name)
away than to leave it,” he said.
People who were involved with the hunger strike disagree about
how central the Chávez name was to its goals.
“People are arguing that here you have an opportunity to
convert to a department ““ take it. And then there are others
that feel the association with the name is important enough to hang
tough,” MacÃas said.
Chon Noriega, the director of the Chicana/o studies center,
which works closely with the César Chávez center and
supports departmentalization, said he hopes the Chávez name
will stay.
“I would hope very strongly that the name Chávez is
maintained. It’s a way of recognizing a distinguished leader
who encouraged education of young Latinos from very early
on,” he said.
Noriega added that the issue should be resolved quickly.
“They have been left for over a decade without
departmental status, and it is something that should have been done
long ago,” he said.
The final decision would not only be important to the
participants of the hunger strike of 1993, but also to faculty,
staff, students and the community as a whole, MacÃas
explained.
“It’s not a decision that ought to be made lightly
or by a few people, as much as something that ought to be consulted
with a wide range of stake-holders,” he said.