Funding Issue Stalls Accord in Chicano Studies Talks : Education: UCLA hunger strikers’ insistence on more money for program dims hopes for quick compromise, campus official says. Amnesty for protesters is also an obstacle.

As the hunger strike over the Chicano studies controversy at UCLA went into its 11th day, hopes for a quick compromise foundered Friday with strikers insisting on much higher funding for the program.

However, negotiations between the strikers and the administration intensified with a major political summit at the Westwood campus’s faculty center and quieter, but substantial chats in the strikers’ tents.

In the morning, both sides were optimistic that a compromise could be reached quickly on a plan to give the 20-year-old Chicano studies program many of the powers of an independent department that the protesters seek, but without granting it formal departmental status.

But the deal at least temporarily fell apart, sources on both sides said, when strikers demanded that Chicano studies be guaranteed a permanent faculty of 15; the administration says it can afford only six. The strikers also want students to have a say in hiring, something that would break with academic tradition and, faculty members fear, politicize the classroom.

“Those demands are excessive,” said a high-ranking UCLA administrator, who asked not to be identified. He estimated that meeting the demands for faculty and other staffing would cost $2 million.

Another apparent sticking point is the possible prosecution of five protesters who face the most serious charges stemming from the May 11 rally that damaged the faculty center. The hunger strikers want assurances that all charges will be dropped. Campus officials are willing to recommend leniency but stress that the decision rests with the city attorney’s office. City Atty. James Hahn was out of town Friday and could not be reached.

UCLA medical school professor Jorge Mancillas, who is among the nine hunger strikers, said some progress had been made, but that it was “premature to say that this was coming to any conclusion.” Sitting in a wheelchair and wearing a winter parka to ward off the chills his fasting has produced, Mancillas expressed concern that he and fellow strikers would face serious health problems if the protest continued into next week.

UCLA’s Chicano studies program offers 18 courses this year, from history of Chicano peoples to Chicana feminism, and has an annual budget of $272,000. It is interdisciplinary, with faculty coming mainly from other departments. Fifty students this year are deibclared majors in Chicano studies. UCLA has about 23,600 undergraduates.

The protesters say only an independent department can bring the proper emphasis and respect to Chicano studies, while campus officials argue that the interdisciplinary approach is academically sound. Such nuances are being lost in the increasingly politicized struggle involving ethnic pride and anger at the Establishment UCLA seems to represent.

Late Friday afternoon, UCLA Chancellor Charles E. Young met in the faculty center with a delegation of state and federal legislators who are pushing for a quick settlement. The session lasted more than two hours, with shouting heard through the closed door.

Among those attending were U.S. Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard and her father, Edward Roybal, the former congressman; Rep. Xavier Becerra; state Sens. Art Torres and Tom Hayden, and Assembly members Hilda Solis, Marguerite Archie-Hudson and Diane Martinez. All expressed sympathy with the strikers and brought with them news of an Assembly resolution passed Thursday night calling on UCLA to establish a Chicano studies department.

Afterward, Young said that disagreements remained, but that his aides would talk with the strikers’ representatives later Friday night. Asked if he felt beaten up by the elected officials, the chancellor replied: “You bet. I’m sitting in there with people who have power over me and are threatening to use that power.”

Sen. Torres confirmed that emotions were hottest when faculty leaders vehemently denounced the idea of student input on hiring teachers. Torres said he had no problem with the idea, adding he felt it was time for the UC system to change many of its policies.

Earlier, UCLA’s dean of social sciences, Scott Waugh, and Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Winston Doby met with the strikers in their tents on the lawn across from Murphy Hall, the administration headquarters.