Budget Threats on Chicano Studies Fail to Budge UCLA : Education: Legislators say they will try to block funds unless school upgrades program. Chancellor says they will not.

UCLA was threatened with painful state budget reprisals Friday unless the school reverses itself and upgrades its Chicano studies program to an independent department. But after a lengthy meeting with some state and federal legislators, UCLA Chancellor Charles E. Young said he had not changed his opinion that Chicano studies should remain an interdisciplinary program for at least two more years.

State Sen. Art Torres (D-Los Angeles) has persuaded a legislative subcommittee to temporarily hold up spending $838,000 on a UCLA Law School building addition and on Friday he said he would work to block other state funding unless the 20-year-old Chicano studies program becomes a department.

“It’s no longer just an academic question. It has become a symbol across the state that even this chancellor is unable to realize,” Torres said after the 2 1/2-hour meeting with Young.

Assemblywoman Marguerite Archie-Hudson (D-Los Angeles), who chairs the Assembly Committee on Higher Education, and state Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica) made similar comments, earning cheers from the 250 student demonstrators who were waiting outside the faculty center where Friday’s meeting was held.

Campus officials said the faculty center suffered up to $50,000 in damage when protesters seeking the upgrade for Chicano studies occupied it Tuesday; 99 people were arrested in the incident. Students have peacefully held daily demonstrations on the issue since then.

Chancellor Young, in comments after Friday’s meeting, said he respected the legislators’ opinions but stressed that the state Constitution grants UC independence on such matters to shield the schools from just such political pressure tactics.

“No, I don’t see myself responding to that kind of action,” Young said of the budget threats, which he believes will not be carried out by the full Legislature.

Young reiterated that he would reconsider his position after two years if it becomes clear that other departments are not allowing their professors to teach more Chicano studies courses.

Also attending the summit with Young and other UCLA leaders were: Reps. Lucille Roybal-Allard and Xavier Becerra, both Los Angeles Democrats; Assemblywoman Hilda Solis (D-La Puente); and actor Edward James Olmos, who is active in Latino and educational issues.

The program has total control over several courses, but many others are taught by professors in other departments. Young maintains that this brings intellectual vitality, but his opponents contend that it keeps the program weak and beholden to others. Young has promised to give Chicano studies more say in hiring of professors, who would hold joint appointments in the program and in other subject areas.

Privately, some UCLA faculty oppose independent departmental status for ethnic studies programs because of fears that political activists would dominate them. They cite events of the past week as proof, although Chicano activists say such attitudes are racist.

Enrollment in the Chicano studies program is a central point in the debate, some participants say. UCLA administrators report that 30 students declared themselves to be majors in 1991-92, the latest year for which official figures are available. Ruben Lizardo, the program’s counselor, said Friday that the number of majors has risen to 50 this year, including students who are double-majoring.

Whether 30 or 50 students are majors, some UCLA faculty privately say the numbers are tiny when compared to 2,645 undergraduates, or 11.4% of the student body who identified themselves last fall as “Chicano/Mexican-American.” (Additionally, 1,275 undergraduates said they were Latino or of other Hispanic backgrounds.)

The number of Chicano studies majors has quadrupled since 1989, when the program faced elimination. Lizardo contends that the number could grow if enough courses were added to the curriculum. About seven Chicano studies courses are offered each quarter and most of those are filled to capacity, he said.

Young has promised to increase funds so that more Chicano studies classes can be offered, and he has pledged to give the interdisciplinary program more say over the hiring of professors who would work both in Chicano studies and their home departments. But Chicano activists complain that only an independent department has real control over course offerings and faculty hirings. Furthermore, the activists contend, the lack of full departmental status sends a discouraging message to students that the program might not be worth majoring in.

“Interdepartmental programs in general don’t have the respect that a department has,” said senior Claudia Soltero, one of the students leading the movement for the upgrade.

UCLA’s dean of social studies, Scott Waugh, suggested otherwise. He noted that several departments with longstanding independence have small numbers of majors. Last year, German had 41 majors, Italian had 38, Near Eastern languages and cultures had 21. At the same time, several interdisciplinary programs have large enrollments, such as the 300 majors in communications studies. “The point there is that being a department doesn’t guarantee you are going to have enrollments or majors,” Waugh said.

None of the ethnic studies programs at UCLA are independent departments. The Afro-American studies program has 41 undergraduate majors, an administrator said. Asian-American studies does not offer an undergraduate major but about 200 undergraduates are fashioning a specialty, equivalent to a minor, said Prof. Don Nakanishi, director of Asian-American Studies Center.