Envisioning the past and future Latina/o Studies Program continues to grow in size, stature
By Andrea Lynn, Staff Writer (217) 333-2177; andrea1@illinois.edu
One hundred and thirty-five years ago, when the UI (then called the Illinois Industrial University) opened on the prairie, 50 young men from Champaign County buckled down to their courses in Latin, math, rhetoric and natural philosophy – all preparatory work for their chosen disciplines in either “liberal” or “technical” fields. Fast forward to the fall of 2003, when 28,623 undergraduates flooded Illinois’ campus. The limited curriculum and tight homogeneity of the late-1800s are long gone. The current freshman class (6,801 strong – 53 percent male, 47 percent female) hails from 48 U.S. states and 41 foreign countries. Few people could have predicted the many additions and subtractions to the curriculum, the many shifts in student demographics. Who could have foreseen, for example, the growing ranks of Latina and Latino students in Illinois and at Illinois – many of them first-generation collegians. “This is our fastest growing population, without a doubt,” said Stanley Henderson, associate provost of admissions and records. According to statistics gathered by Henderson’s office, 503 Latina/Latino students are enrolled in the fall semester – that’s 14 percent more than last year, and a whopping 44.5 percent more over 1993, all of which reflects well on a universitywide campaign for diversity on the UI campus. To help these students explore their rich and varied historical roots, the UI’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences created an academic unit, the Latina/Latino Studies Program, in 1997. Throughout the years, several directors – Bill Berry, Rolando Romero, Ronald Sosa and Louis DeSipio – along with Latino faculty members and countless students dedicated themselves to developing and strengthening the program. Pedro Cabán, a nationally renowned Latina/o studies scholar, took the reins a year ago, and thanks to him, the program, which he describes as “a teaching and research academic unit committed to promoting knowledge of the Latina/Latino experience in the United States,” has continued to grow. The Latina/Latino Studies Program now offers a substantial menu of courses, events, activities, advisers and faculty members. Students are delighted with Cabán and what he has brought to the program. Granted, this is familiar turf for Cabán – not only because his doctorate from Columbia University is in political science, and his research expertise is on colonial Puerto Rico, but because he has done plenty of heavy foundation-building before. In 1990, Cabán was recruited by Rutgers University, to chair – and help build – its Puerto Rican and Hispanic Caribbean Studies department. When he stepped down eight years later, the department had six full-time tenure-track faculty members, an active visiting scholar program with the University of Puerto Rico, three full-time lecturers and six adjunct faculty members. Moreover, the department annually graduated 30 to 37 majors, offered approximately 24 courses and enrolled 900 to 1,000 students. Before taking the job at Rutgers, Cabán was director of the Latino Studies Program at Cornell University. Throughout his career he has been a strong player in area studies associations and currently is secretariat of the Puerto Rican Studies Association, a group he previously directed. Cabán said he was attracted to the UI “because it is among the top public research universities in the country, and because of the size and the national reputation of its Latino and Latina studies faculty.” Other “powerful factors” that influenced his decision to come to the Midwest: the university’s “commitment to promoting the academic development of Latina/o studies and support for my vision of Latino studies and the role of diversity in achieving excellence.” “Finally, but no less important,” Cabán said, “was the support of the students,” who “were actively engaged in the process of selecting a director. I was, and continue to be, impressed with their sophistication, intelligence and commitment to Latina/o studies.” Cabán’s vision for the program is multipronged and ambitious. As he sees it, LLSP should aspire to “promote a vibrant intellectual environment that stimulates collaborative and interdisciplinary research, provides comprehensive undergraduate education appropriate for all university students and generates knowledge of Latina and Latino populations and their diverse and historically varied roles in U.S. society.” According to Cabán, the Latina/o Studies faculty members strongly believe that their “collective mission” includes working closely with students, many of whom are first-generation college entrants, “to develop an appreciation for their abilities and realize their academic potential.” The Latina/o Studies Program also strives to create “an intellectually and culturally supportive environment” that aids in retaining Latina and Latino graduate students, and at the same time “furthers the processional advancement and academic development of Latino faculty.” In addition, the educational mission of the Latina/o Studies Program includes encouraging other academic departments to develop courses and incorporate materials that provide “an analysis of the Latino experience,” Cabán said. “Related to this is the program’s resolve to assume a key role in multicultural education and promoting diversity at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.” Judging by last year’s achievements alone, the Latina/o Studies Program is strong and getting stronger. Indeed, Cabán reports that 2002-2003 was “a year of substantial, some would say unprecedented, change for LLSP.” Not only did he come on board as permanent director, but three faculty members also were hired, each with a joint appointment in the Latina/o Studies Program and in an academic unit: Eileen Diaz McConnell, sociology; Anne Martinez, history; and Isabel Molina, the Institute of Communications Research. In addition, Alicia Rodriguez, whose doctorate is in educational policy studies from the Urbana campus, joined the program staff as associate director. “With her appointment,” Cabán said, “the program has increased the range of academic activities and services it can offer various constituencies on campus.” In addition to serving as the adviser to students and the liaison with new faculty, Rodriguez planned course offerings, and with curriculum and instruction professor Rosalinda Barrera, associate director of Illinois’ Center for Democracy in a Multiracial Society, developed a public school initiative. The Latina/o Studies Program also recommended the appointment of two postdoctoral fellows for 2003-2004 and received authorization to conduct two more faculty searches for 2004 appointments. At present, 26 faculty members and administrators are on the Latina/o Studies Program’s roster. Together, they taught 19 courses last year. Thirteen students received minors in Latina/o studies, “the largest number since the inception of the minor,” Cabán said. In addition, this semester 384 students are enrolled in Latina/o studies courses and courses cross-listed with Latina/o studies courses, which is an increase of nearly 38 percent over last fall. Although the Latina/o Studies Program was up and running when Sylvia Caballero entered the UI in 2000, it was at that time, in her opinion, a shadow of its future self, with no permanent director, a small number of affiliated faculty, an “inadequate budget,” a home base in “not the best condition,” and programming that “wasn’t as exceptional as it is now.” “All that has changed,” she said. “With the help of the administration, especially Chancellor Cantor, we have hired new faculty, expanded the budget, renovated the building and even planned a graduate conference. The momentum of change has been amazing, and, in my opinion, long overdue.” This is not to say that the program is perfect as is, she said. “I do not want to give the impression that we are satisfied. It is dangerous to become complacent. There is still much more I would like to see before I graduate,” Caballero said, “including the replacement of faculty who left prior to 2001, the restoration of the historical mural about the Latina/o experience at UIUC that was painted in 1974, conference money for students to help us cover expenses if we travel to attend Latina/o studies related conferences, and much more. “What I want is for everything that students have been calling for during the 1960s, ’70s, ’80s, ’90s and today to finally be established. It’s time.” Abel Montoya agrees that “the hurdles and obstacles are still there,” although they are “perhaps a bit lower.” The number of Latinas/os has grown, but Latino students are still underrepresented on campus, said Montoya, the senior assistant to the director of admissions and records. Many students still experience culture shock when they arrive on campus, even though there are more organizations and activities to help their transition to campus life. Cabán agrees that there is much to do, even now, as Illinois’ Latina/o Studies Program is “poised to attain national recognition as a pre-eminent center of research and instruction in this subject area.” For starters, he feels that additional investments are needed in the coming years, so that the Latina/o Studies Program can, for example, continue its “aggressive program of faculty recruitment”; develop an undergraduate major; develop “a presence” in graduate education; and acquire the autonomy to hire faculty members and to be able to have faculty tenured in the unit. Caballero appreciates that programmatic progress takes time. But for now, “Having this program shows me, as well as other students, that the university is on the cutting-edge of academic disciplines and has the potential to make this program one of the most powerful in the world - much like our engineering programs.” Even the concept of a Latina/o Studies program is “quite ground-breaking,” she said. “Chicana/o Studies, Hispanic Studies, American Studies, Puerto Rican/Caribbean Studies - one can find all of these throughout the United States. But if you look at Latina/o Studies - that is, a program that encompasses all these diverse populations and groups them together in the hope of finding truth about our similar experiences and identities - that is really special and unique.” The other special and unique quality, the one that separates Illinois’ Latina/o Studies Program from other programs is its “openness and willingness to have student participation, both informally and structurally,” she said. “I think that is why the program has had continued success. It is in constant dialogue with its main constituency, undergraduate and graduate students, so it is always able to adjust and fit to our needs since it always knows what they are.”
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