rochin short turbulent life chicano studies ssq 1973 #42859068.pdf

8/20/2019 Rochin Short Turbulent Life Chicano Studies SSQ 1973 #42859068.pdf

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THE SHORT AND TURBULENT LIFE OF

CHICANO STUDIES: A PRELIMINARY STUDYOF EMERGING PROGRAMS AND PROBLEMS1

REFUGIOI. ROCHINUniversity f CaliforniaDavis

PREVIOUSnterrelateduniversities,

TO RECENT

problems

few ChicanosATTEMPTS

of lowenrolled

levels

TO ATTRACTinofthese

income,

CHICANOSinstitutions

racial

TO

isolation,

becauseCOLLEGES

ofweak

ANDthe

PREVIOUSuniversities,ew Chicanosenrolled nthese nstitutions ecauseoftheinterrelated

roblemsof lowlevelsof

income,racial

isolation,weak

schoolholding power, poor reading achievement, ulturalexclusionandother reasonswhichhave been studiedby the U.S. Commissionn CivilRights.2 houghmanyof theseproblems emain, stimates f the numberof Chicanosentering ollegesshow someincrease.According o a recentsurvey f the CollegeEntranceExaminationBoard,an estimated 44,000Chicanoswere undergraduates n southwestern ollegesin the fall of1971.3Thisrepresents 14percent ncreaseoverthe previousyear, s in-dicatedby the study. For fall term 1972,the enrollment f Chicanos wasexpected oincrease nother 3percent.4

Severalfactorshave converged o increaseChicanoenrollment n col-leges.The Board'sstudy ndicatesthat the contributing actorsmay in-cludespecialrecruitment y Chicano staff nd students, inancial id andwork-study mployment, emedial-developmentourses, tutorials, Chi-cano-orientedounseling,nd perhapsmost mportantly, hicanostudies.5

1Revisionf a paper resentedt the nnualmeetingf theSouthwesternocialSciencessociation,arch0-April,1972,anAntonio,exas.2U.S.CommissionnCivilRights, eport ,EthnicsolationfMexicanmericansinthePublicchoolsf he outhwestWashington,.C.:U.S. GovernmentrintingOffice,970a ReportI, TheUnfinishedducationOutcomesorMinoritiesn theFiveSouthwesterntates Washington,.C.: U.S. Governmentrinting ffice,

1970b);ReportII,The Excluded tudentEducationalractices

ffectingexican

Americansn the SouthwestWashington,.C.: U.S.Governmentrinting ffice,1972).Othertudieshow hat n themid-1960's,hicanosncollege ere oncentra-ted n institutionsankingelow op evel.Forexample,n Californian 1966, .4percentf heJunior ollegetudentsadSpanishurnames.n the all f 1968,essthan .6percentf ll studentsnrolledntheUniversityfCaliforniaere hicanos.despitehe act hat ver 5percentf he tate's opulationreChicano.naddition,studiesncollegeducationnTexasndNewMexico howhat hicanosreheavilyrepresentednthe maller,ocationally-orientedolleges,atherhan n the tate ni-versitiesnd andgrant olleges.orreferencesee:LeoGrebler,oanW.Moore ndRalph .GuzmanheMexican-mericaneople:heNations econdargest inor-itu NewYork: heFree ress, 970),pp.178-179.3Collegentrance xaminationoard,Access oCollegeorMexicanmericansinthe outhwestHigherducationurveys,eport o.6 (Palo Alto,alifornia,uly1972),Table3,p. 19.This tudymadet clear hat he nrollmentfChicanosouldhave obe ncreasedy nother00,000oprovidenumberhatwasproportionalothe umberfChicanosn he opulationf he outhwest.4Ibid.,p.8.sIbid., able18,p.34.

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THEHORT ND URBULENTIFEOFCHICANOTUDIES 885

According o the 153respondentswho answeredthe Board'ssurvey f189 southwesternolleges,Chicano studiescourseswere offered y about85 percent of the collegesin countieswith large concentrations f Chí-canos.6 nmost nstances,n both 2-year nd 4-year olleges, hesecourseshavebeen developedinto organizedprograms f Chicanostudies.

Even though the emergenceof Chicanostudiesprogramshas becomeincreasingly vident, especiallyin the Southwest, ewpeople are famil-iar with the stated purposeand objectivesof such programs, ncludingmanyof the older folk of the Chicanocommunities.Moreover, he roleand function f such programshasbecome clouded inpoliticaland socialstruggles f collegestudents.Further buried in the morass of issues is aclearunderstanding f the problems acingnearly ll Chicano studiespro-grams. gnoranceof prevailingproblemsmay makenew programs ndeven old ones suffer roma turbulent xistence, o the detriment fmanypresent ndpotential tudents f Chicano studies.

Thus,the intent f this study s twofold: 1) to highlight heessentialfeatures f emergingChicano studiesprograms nd (2) to analyzesomeof the problemsfacingsuch programs n progress.What the study doesnotdo, however, s review he iterature n Chicanostudies,becauseprac-ticallynoneexists.Nor does the studypresent n extensive rray of data.

In short, his s meant obe apreliminary uestion-raisingtudy.Hopefullyin the near future, more time and effort ill be put into in-depth nter-viewsand analysesof the socialpressures nd stresses onfronting hi-canostudiesprograms.THESTUDY

In Marchand Augustof 1972,a questionnairewassent to eachdirectorof a Chicanostudiesprogram n 29collegecampuses.Therewereno spe-cific riteria orselecting he29;everydirectorwhose name and addresswas includedin a directory repared by the ChicanoStudiesDivisionattheUniversity

fCalifornia,Berkeley,was sent a questionnaire.The listincludedeightmaincampusesof the University f California nd schoolsinArizona,Colorado,NewMexico,Texas,Utah,Washington, nd Indiana.As ofOctober20,1972,18directors espondedto the survey. t shouldbenotedthat ome respondents nclosedsupplementarymaterial n additionto the questionnaire,whichsolicited an outlineof their programs f Chi-canostudies.However,due to the smallnessof the sample,this study slimited: (1) to synthesizing nd summarizing he main findings f the

questionnairesnd (2 to generalizingwhenpossible.CHICANOTUDIESROGRAMS

Oneof the first hings hatmustbe clarifieds thatnot all campuseshavea ChicanoStudiesProgram er se.Of the 18directorswhoresponded othe survey, xactlyhalfcalledtheirprogram Chicano Studies.The other6Ibid., . 14.



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886 SocialScienceQuarterly

respondentsnoted different ames for their programs. n addition,con-siderablediversity xists n the tructure f such programs. omecampuseshavea Department f ChicanoStudies.Butin a fewcases wefind, or x-ample,a Chicano Studies Division within ither Department f EthnicStudies, r a ComparativeCulturesProgram, r within newly stablishedcollege,such as one for Urban Studies.A few campuseshouse ChicanoStudies Centers which serve principally s academicresearchunits. Ofthe 18campuses,8 offermajors n Ethnic,Culturalor ChicanoStudies;4campusesofferminors.

Thoughdifferences etween campusprograms xist (in terms of theformal tructure nd operationof each), they stillhave features n com-mon. For one,courses re nowtaught y Chicanofacultymembers n eachof the separateprograms r departments. hese courseshavethe commoncharacteristic f beinginterdisciplinaryn nature,drawingmaterials romthe academicdisciplinesof the respectivefacultymembers.The coursesare also for s well as about Chícanos.What is new about mostChi-cano-related ourses s that they attempt o developthe bilingual,bicul-tural mode of living.There is no apparent rejectionof the predominantAngloculture; instead there is primarily strengthening f a Chicanoculturalheritage.Examplesof the rangeof coursestaught are illustrated

by the following itles:PopularExpressionof ChicanoLife Styles,Chí-canosand HigherEducation,The Chicano andFarm Labor,HealthandMedical ProblemsAmongChícanos,A Socio-Psychologicalnalysis f theChicano,The Churchand the Chicano,Demography nd InternalMigra-tionsof Chícanos,MexicanDance asan Expression f Chicano Culture.

For another, ll programshave the uniquecharacteristic f beingnew.The twooldestprogramsn the samplebeganin the fall of 1968. Twomoreprograms egan in 1969, ix n 1970,five n 1971andthreewere nitiated n1972.Altogether, he phenomenonof Chicanostudies is rather recent,compared oprograms or lackstudies, or xample.

Factorsbehind the rise n Chicano studiesare also similar mongcam-puses. Important s the finding hat most programswere precededbyChicano studentmovements nd interested acultywho expressedcon-cern that:

(a) The American universities ad neglectedthe Chicano'ssocioeco-nomicand educationalneedsand had tried oimposethe Anglo-Americanmonoculture yndrome n all Chícanosin general.To quotefrom ne oftheplansfor Chicano studiesprogram

Every developmentalforce economic,political, linguistic,demo-graphic has confirmed he Anglo-Americanmonoculture nd de-nied the Mexican-Americansheirown,and the substantial ontribu-

tion t would have made to the totalsociety.Chicano Studiesexists orectify hiscultural mbalance.77Curriculumommittee,hicanotudies ivision,AProposedurriculumor nA.B.Majorn Chicanotudies, imeoBerkeley:niversityfCalifornia,anuary,

1971),p.1.



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THE HORTNDURBULENTIFEOF CHICANOTUDIES 887

(b) Thehigher nstitutions f education had contributed irectly o thedeprivedconditions f the Chicano,rural and urban,by benign neglect.On the otherhand,the nstitutions ound t appropriate oprovide pecialservices o other ethnicgroupsand foreign tudents nd not to Chicanos.

(c) The Chicanoswould be by-passed by programsaddressingtheneeds of blacksand not the specificneedsof Chicanos. This concernwasimportant ecause of the fact that Chicanos outnumber blacks as thelargestminority n each of the states of the Southwest.8 urthermore, twas obviousthat Chicanos werenot entering niversities r collegesinanysignificant umber9nd, hence,weregrossly nderrepresented n stu-dent affairs nd other campusactivitiesrelativeto the participation fblacks andAnglos.

Notablytheseexpressionsf the faculty nd studentswho createdChi-canostudies are largelymanifested n the objectivesthey seek to fulfill.But, across the sample,Chicano studiesprograms howsomedivergenceon the things hey attempt o do now and the goalsthat they eek to ac-complishn the longrun. For somerespondents, heirprograms unctionsimply oorganizeand to offer variety f coursesdealingwith the Chi-canoand for the benefit f those studentswho wishto learn moreaboutthe Chicano'shistorical nd contemporary resence.But for he mostpart,

Chicanostudiesprograms resently trive or the following: 1) to createan image-buildingnd power-showingnstrument hichfurther nvolvesthe university ith the Chicanocommunity hrough gency and commu-nity ponsorededucationalprojects; 2) to have relevant10nd scholarlycourseswhichpenetrate verypertinent epartment n the campus;(3) toprovide n effective nvironment11or heeducationofChicanosandotherstudentswho are interested n bilingual,bicultural ducation;and (4) toencourageand developresearch n all areas ofknowledgenecessary orbetterunderstanding f theChicano.

8Forpopulationstimatesee:U.S. Bureau f heCensus,eneral ocial ndEco-nomicharacteristics1970Census fPopulationC( 1)-C.See

the ndividualamph-lets or rizona,alifornia,olorado,ewMexico,ndTexas.9Accordingo theU.S.Commissionn CivilRights,monghefive outhwesternstates,minorityigh chool raduatesn Californiaave thegreatestikelihoodf

enteringollege.ut heCommissionlsonoteshatf he resentchoolrop-outatesin Californiaail o mprove, ore han neof three hicano upilsn grades nethroughix- hat s,120,000upils utof330,000-ould ail ograduaterom ighschool. orblacks,ccordingo theCommission'seport,hecorrespondingigureswoulde60,000ropoutsf nelementarynrollmentf 190,000.ssuch, hedrop-out ate or hicanossproportionatelyreaterhanhat or lacks.ource: .S. Com-missionn CivilRights, eportI, TheUnfinishedducationAppendix,p.80.10Relevantoursesrereferredoas thosewhichnspiren the tudents senseofcommitmentndresponsibilityo theChicanoommunityndcourses hich ro-vide tudents ith he nowledgend killsoworkffectivelyor heChicanoeople.Source:eneralesponseromhe uestionnaires.11 Environmenteferso he cademicnd ulturalupporteededohelp tudentssucceedn an nstitutionhat asheretoforeoneittle o acknowledger ustainheeducationalightsndparticularulturaltrengthsfChicanos.ource:esponsenone f he uestionnaires.



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THE HORTND URBULENTIFEOF CHICANOTUDIES 889

(2) to state the mostoftenheardproblemfacingChicanofaculty. t is theintent of this section of the paper to synthesize he main aspectsof re-sponsesprovidedbythe directors f Chicano studiesprograms.

Listed in order of descending mportance, hemainproblems acing henewprograms re: (1) fundingwith hard money he recurrent nd ex-pansionary eeds of the programs, 2) faculty ecruitment,nd (3) com-municating he aimsand interests f Chicanostudies,first, o the admin-istration, nd, second,to the Chicano students. t is ironic o find hat asthe numberof Chicano students ncreases on the collegecampusestheyshouldcreate a problemfor Chicano studies programs.Essentially, heproblemarises from he conflict etweenthe incoming tudents nd theold who were around to developChicano studies n the first place.Asyet, here s no clearpictureof the ssues nvolved.Allthreeproblems rehighly elated,for with the provision f moremoneyfor Chicanostudies,the problemsof faculty ecruitment nd communication an be reduced.But,on the otherhand,with the continuing roblemsof recruitment ndcommunication,heability o justify heneedfor moremoney s weak-enedconsiderably.Overall,though, heoverriding roblemsconvergeontheChicanofaculty t eachoftheuniversity ampuses.

What are the problemsfacingChicanofacultymembers?The foremost

difficultys pure and simple;there s a great shortageof trained, xperi-enced andtenuredChicanofaculty n anyof the collegecampusesofferingChicano studies.Accordingo thereport repared by theCollegeEntranceExaminationBoard,the shortage f Chicanofaculty s pervasiven nearlyall campusesof the southwestern tates. Altogether, here are an esti-mated1,500full-time hicano facultymembers n collegesand universitiesthroughout heSouthwest.14early90percentof the Chicanofaculty rein public institutions ith ittle more than half teaching n two year col-leges.The other 0percent re inprivate nstitutions. ut one indication fthe shortage f Chicanofaculty s the ratioofChicano students oChicanofaculty. A ratio of approximately0:1 is generally cceptedas a typicalstudent/faculty atio throughout igher educational institutions. 15heChicanostudent/f cuity ratio s far from hat proportion. or nearlyallsouthwestern olleges,the ratio s nearly100:1.Notably, he ratio of Chi-canostudents o Chicanofacultydiffers ccordingto the type of collegeone considers.For public2-year olleges,the ratio s 124:1;for public4-year nstitutionst s 65:1;and for rivate olleges, 8 1.16Thesurvey uestionnaire evealed twoimportant iecesof nformation.First,not allChicanofacultymembers upport nd associate withChicanostudiesprograms.The reasonswhy are still unresearched, ut generally,onlytwo-thirds f the Chicanofacultyworkto developChicano studies.

Byall indications, hismeans that the ratio of Chicano faculty o Chicanostudents s more severe than the figures rovidedby the Board'sreport.14Collegentrancexaminationoard,Access oCollege, able19,p.35.Ibid,p.15.

Ibid., able19, .35.



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8go SocialScienceQuarterly

TABLE1NumberndPercentagefChicanoFacultyMembers ssociated ithChicanoStudiesPrograms y Status nd ComparisonsithNational ercentages*1

CollegeChicanoaculty15 FacultynU.S.C

Academic tatus Number Percentage PercentageFull Professor ÏÔ 1L6 2L6Associate rofessor 8 9.3 20.7Assistantrofessor 28 32.6 28.3Lecturersnd nstructors 30 34.9 19.9Others 10 11.6 9.5

Total 86 100.0 100.0

aTheterm Associateds used o dentifyhicanoaculty howork ith hicanoStudiesrograms.bChicanoaculty embershoworkwithChicanotudies rogramsn the 18campusesurveyed.ercentages ofTotalNumber.cAmericanouncil n Education,CollegendUniversityaculty:A Statistical

Description,esearch

eport,No.5

(Washington,.C.:U.S.Government

rintingOffice,970).

Second,the greatmajority f Chicanofaculty re non-tenured.Moreover,comparisonswithfigures eported y theAmerican ouncilon Education17showthat relativelymore Chicanofaculty members re non-tenured nrelation o all collegefacultymembers n the U.S.(see Table 1).

For the nation as a whole,the academicrank most frequently eldbycollegefaculty s assistant rofessor 28 percent). Butthere re also sub-stantialnumbers f U.S. facultywith enured tatus;22 and21percent refull professors nd associateprofessors, espectively. y comparison, heoverwhelming ercentageof Chicano facultymembers re non-tenured,with tatusbelow therank f associateprofessor.n addition, hosewhodonot hold at least the rank ofassistant rofessor re usuallythosewhohavenotcompleted heirPh.D.dissertations. verall,Chicanofacultymembersaregrossly nderrepresentedn the tenured positions f most ollegecam-pusesof the survey.Thisin itself s a major problemthat confronts hi-

17AmericanouncilnEducation,CollegendUniversityaculty:AStatisticalDescription,esearcheport , No.5 (Washington,.C.:U.S.Governmentrint-ingOffice,970 Selectedharacteristicsfcollegeaculty embersredrawn romthereport ndreproducedn: U.S.Departmentf Health, ducation,ndWelfare,Office f Education,mericanducationWashington,.C.: U.S.GovernmentPrinting ffice, ovember,970).Accordingothis rticle n theCouncil'seport,the ypical emberf collegeacultys ikelyobewhite, rotestant,nd native-bornAmericanitizen.. . About5percentfcollege aculty embersold doc-tor degree,ndan additional4percent ave arned professionalegree,uch sM.D.,DD.S.,orLL.B.,p.33.



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THE HORTNDURBULENTIFEOFCHICANOTUDIES 891

cano studiesprogramsn their nfancy ecause of thepressure laced uponuntenured aculty o reachtenured tatus, mongother ommitments.

Relatedto the problemof short supply, hemostfundamental roblemsfacedby the Chicanofaculty tem from heacute needs of (1 the Chi-cano students, nd (2) the educational institutions here the Chicanostudiesprograms xist.

Without doubt,mostof the Chicanofaculty we somesort f gratitudeto the Chicanostudentswho protested gainst the educational structurewhichwas dominatedby the northern uropean culturalvalues and de-scendants.Accordingly,hestudents emandedChicano studiesto rectifythiscultural mbalance.Manyof the students ven set out to recruit xpe-riencedfacultywho would be moresensitive to the special problemsChícanosencounter n higher ducation.Chicanostudents avealso takenpart n the selectionprocessof newfaculty oiningtheir ampuses.Oncecommitted o work within Chicanostudies,though, he Chicanofacultyare compelledto respondto the forthright equestsof Chicanostudents.Such requests and demands very often involvethe developmentofcurriculadesignedto providecultural warenessand insight nto the dif-ferent spectsof Chicanoculture:historical, inguistic, ducational,polit-ical,economic,ociological,nd psychological.his in itself s a tall order

since the base ofChicanoliterature rom which one can draw for ecturesis slightlymore than nonexistent. he problem s that t takesmuch moretime to create new materialfor teachingpurposesthan it does to drawlectures rom standard ext hat s well knownbythe facultymembers.

Students lso tend to misperceiveheroleand function f Chicano fac-ulty within a studiesprogram.18or somestudents, he faculty role isviewedasone ofhelping hestudents o adjustto the campusand to assistin activities uchasdemonstrations,oycotts, nd organized ocialevents.Moreover,personalizedassistances called for on manymatters angingfrom roblems f sex to finances,matterswhichtheydo notcare to discuss

withnon-Chicanos.But in their need for help,the studentsdo not recog-nize the stringent oundarieswhichrestrictwhat a facultymembercanand cannotaccomplish.On top of this, studentsmake it clear that theyexpect ull ime nd energy oserving heir nterests ecause their ctivi-

tieshelpedbring bout the positionof the facultymember.Helpin thesematters an be given, ut not forlongsincetermination f faculty ppoint-ment will inevitably nsue unless other things are accomplished.Whiletheabovepoints fviewhavebeenexpressedn mostofthequestionnaires,in the words of one respondent: There s no doubt n mymind that Chi-canostudents elateto Chicanofaculty. he problem sthat here re manymoreof themthanus.Manyhoursare spentwithChicanostudents talk-18Oneofthe espondentsentionedhat problemacedyChicanoacultys nmaintainingn image f SuperChicano. y all indicationhis efers o onewhocarriesomespectsf hemacho,sactivenelbarrio,nd ooksnd hinksChicanoandnot Mexicanmerican.



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rochin short turbulent life chicano studies ssq 1973 #42859068.pdf

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