Correction Appended
Update Appended
After 35 years of existence, the journey toward
departmentalization for one ethnic study center may finally be
drawing to a close.
The César E. Chávez Center for Interdisciplinary
Instruction in Chicana/o Studies may soon be calling itself a
department by as early as the end of this academic year.
The center’s proposal for departmentalization was approved
by the Faculty Executive Committee, the Council on Planning and
Budget and most recently the Undergraduate Students Association
Council earlier in the quarter.
It currently awaits review by the Graduate Council, which is
meeting on April 30.
“I know for a fact the proposal is intact, but it
doesn’t seem to be raising any comments relating to dissent
or concerns, and that’s always a positive sign,” said
Abel Valenzuela, an associate professor of Chicana/o studies and
interim chairman for the center.
Established as a research center in 1969, the César
Chávez center finally secured an interdepartmental position in
1993 as a result of a hunger strike organized by student
support.
Since that time, work was done to institutionalize the center
through the establishment of a solid teaching and research
reputation, Valenzuela said, adding that only after this
establishment did the center propose to make the change from center
to department.
The center also established the Student Departmental Senate
compromised of Chicana/o studies students who work closely with
faculty to assemble student support for departmentalization.
Student senate representatives attend quarterly meetings, and
have attended undergraduate council meetings to voice the strength
of the center from a student perspective.
A senate representative, Emmanuel Martinez ““ who also sits
on the students’ association board of directors ““ said
a change to departmentalization will help legitimize Chicana/o
studies at the university.
“Students can feel they are part of a university
curriculum and not part of a major that is valued less than other
majors,” Martinez said.
He added that this feeling is common among most Chicana/o
studies students because they have been associated with a center
rather than a department for too long.
To become a department, an interdepartmental program must submit
a formal proposal to the Academic Senate for review by several
committees.
The only other ethnic study center on campus to submit a
proposal for departmentalization is the Interdepartmental Program
for Asian American Studies. That proposal was also recently passed
by the Federal Executive Committee.
“All of these committees’ purpose together is to
ensure that a quality program … is available to the constituents
““ in this case the students and the faculty ““ that will
play a strong role in shaping the department,” said Robin
Garrell, chairwoman of the Faculty Executive Committee in the UCLA
College.
The road to departmentalization is a timely process, Garrell
said. Various committees need to review the proposal and make
comments. Any concerns or clarifications raised by committees need
to then be addressed by the center and resubmitted for review.
If the Graduate Council approves the proposal, it will move to
the Executive Board of the senate and then to the executive vice
chancellor, who has the final say in approving the program.
Though Valenzuela said the department title will not affect
services offered by the center, it will represent an important
symbolic change.
“It’s almost like receiving status that should have
been there, in my mind, from the beginning,” Valenzuela
said.
This symbolic title change not only further solidifies the
position of the center at the university but also allows for the
growth in research of ethnic communities at the graduate level.
Along with its departmental proposal, the center submitted a
proposal for a graduate program in the discipline.
The center currently awaits word on its graduate program
proposal that is in the early stages of review within the senate.
However, graduate degree proposals take longer since they have to
go through the University of California systemwide Academic
Senate.
If the proposal for a graduate program passes, UCLA will be the
second university in the nation to have a a graduate program in the
field.
Currently, the University of California, Santa Barbara, is the
first and only university in the United States to offer
master’s and doctoral degrees in Chicana/o studies.
The Chicana/o studies department at UCSB has been in place since
1969, but the graduate program was established within the last five
years and will be accepting its first entering class in 2005.
Claudine Michel, active chairwoman of Chicana/o studies at UCSB,
feels strongly about the future success of the graduate
program.
“I think it will reinforce even more the strength of
Chicana/o studies, and it’s really an opportunity to train
the new generations of scholars who will be the future Ph.D.s and
professors of ethnic studies,” Michel said.
Valenzuela agrees this need is also necessary at UCLA.
“For UCLA not to have a Ph.D. (program) would leave a gap
at a major research university,” he said.
Correction: April 22, 2004,
Thursday
The story should have made clear that the Chicana/o Studies
Research Center and the César E. Chávez Center for
Interdisciplinary Instruction in Chicana/o Studies are separate
entities. Also, a reference to the Faculty Executive Committee was
misidentified as the Federal Executive Committee.
Update: April 26, 2004, Monday
The César E. Chávez Center’s proposal for
departmental status has been approved by the Undergraduate Council.
Professor Claudine Michel is the acting chair of UCSB’s
Chicana/o Studies Department.