Latinos Say CSUN Broke Pledge to Set Aside Space

About 50 Latino students protested outside the Cal State Northridge administration building Monday while their representatives met with administrators to complain that the school reneged on plans to build them a new meeting place.

The students argued that administrators have gone back on promises to build a replacement for Chicano House, which is used by Latino clubs and organizations and will be torn down in several years.

Administrators said the students exaggerated the school’s assurance that room could be found elsewhere for them, turning it into a non-existent guarantee of a new house.

Chicano House is a three-room house with space for meetings, study sessions, Chicano Studies classes and a Central American research library. An outdoor patio is used for musical and dance performances, and parties.

Last spring, university administrators announced that the house would have to be vacated to make room for a new business administration building. But after meetings with Latino students, the administration agreed to preserve the house for their activities during construction.

Talks have been continuing on arrangements for future accommodations.

Campus spokeswoman Ann Salisbury said President James W. Cleary and others involved in the negotiations with the students were “shocked and surprised” to learn that a demonstration had been organized to take place during talks Monday.

“I thought we were continuing to move along toward agreement and we continued to move toward agreement today,” said Bill Chatham, associate vice president for facilities planning and operations. “I was flabbergasted.”

Outside, students were chanting, “First our land, now our house,” “Chicano power” and “Bill Chatham is a liar.” They said they had believed that in return for weathering construction inconveniences during the next two years, a new house would be built for them.

“In the summer, they verbally agreed that if we would give up Chicano House for two years, we would get something in the interim and a future house in the campus master plan. But later they said they had never agreed to that,” said Rene Orozco, chairman of MEChA, the Movimiento Estudiantil Chicanos de Aztlan, a Latino advocacy group .

Chatham said the agreement now includes provisions for the various Latino groups--including MEChA, Teatro Aztlan and the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers--to continue using Chicano House, which is a run-down building in the middle of campus. Those plans include repaving a patio area to make up for the one lost to the construction.

Chatham said a contract outlining the agreements reached Monday between administrators and representatives of Chicano House would be drafted.