UT Austin Creates Mex-Am Studies Department

By Ralph K.M. Haurwitz- Austin American-Statesman Staff

The University of Texas is stepping up its offerings in Mexican-American studies by establishing a full-fledged academic department devoted to the field.

The Department of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies — the somewhat tongue-twisting title acknowledges both genders — is offering bachelor’s and master’s degree programs this fall, and doctoral programs are scheduled to be part of the mix in 2016-17, pending approval by state higher education officials. In addition, a Borderlands Research Institute will be established to support community-based data collection projects.

“This new department will bring together some of the nation’s finest scholars from a variety of academic disciplines and further advance our college and university as a national leader in the study of Mexican American and Latino populations,” said Randy Diehl, dean of the College of Liberal Arts, of which the new department and the planned institute are part.

Mexican-American and Latin American studies are nothing new at UT. The Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies, founded in 1940, offers programs leading to bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees. The Center for Mexican American Studies, established in 1970, is also well-regarded in the field, as is the Benson Latin American Collection, whose holdings include nearly 1 million books and publications, 19,000 maps, 100,000 photographs and a variety of audio and visual materials.

The new department is intended to expand UT’s teaching and research, and one of its signature elements will be a focus on the United States’ changing demographic landscape, said Domino Perez, director of the Center for Mexican American Studies, who noted that Latinos make up a third of the state’s population. Degree tracks will include cultural studies, policy, and language and cognition.

About 25 students at UT are currently majoring in Mexican-American studies. The new department expects to have 50 after a year and 100 after two years. The Long institute has a total of 116 undergraduate and graduate students, and its offerings will continue.

Judge Says Chicano Studies Program Violates Arizona Law

Article from the Latin American Herald Tribune [Click header to go to original article.]
Cartoon by Lalo Alcaraz

Less than a week before classes are set to resume after the Christmas break, the future of Tucson’s Mexican-American studies program has been cast into doubt by a judge’s finding that it violates Arizona law.

The Tucson Unified School District could lose up to $15 million in state funding annually unless it drops or substantially modifies the program.

“This decision was not a surprise for us; in a way, we expected it,” school board member Adelita Grijalva told Efe Wednesday.

The board – itself divided on the issue of Chicano studies – must now decide how to respond to Tuesday’s finding by state administrative law Judge Lewis D. Kowal.

Tucson’s program violates a new Arizona law barring ethnic studies courses that promote “the overthrow of the United States government” or “resentment toward a race or class of people,” Kowal concluded.

That law likewise excludes curricula “designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group” or that seek to “advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals.”

The judge rendered his opinion in the form of a non-binding recommendation to the Arizona education department, which has 30 days to decide whether to pursue legal action against the TUSD if it refuses to bring its program into compliance.

State education superintendent John Huppenthal, who launched the initial challenge to the Chicano studies program, welcomed Kowal’s finding.

“I made a decision based on the totality of the information and facts gathered during my investigation – a decision that I felt was best for all students in the Tucson Unified School District. The judge’s decision confirms that it was the right decision,” Huppenthal said in a statement.

Eleven TUSD teachers filed suit in federal court to challenge the Arizona law as unconstitutional, but the case is still pending.

The attorney representing those plaintiffs, Richard M. Martinez, told Efe he was surprised that Kowal did not even address the constitutional aspect of the law.

The federal lawsuit contends the Arizona measure is discriminatory toward the Hispanic community and that it violates the right to freedom of expression.

Defenders of the Tucson program say it informs students about the history and contributions of Latinos in Arizona and the United States.

The program is more than 40 years old.

Hispanics (Chicanos) make up 61.4 percent of the TUSD’s 51,866 students.

Critics of the new say it was specifically crafted to end the TUSD’s ethnic studies programs, long a target of former Arizona education superintendent Tom Horne, now the state’s attorney general. EFE

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Arizona's Next Scandal? Tea Party State Official Says Ethnic Studies Violates Ban

[Click on header to check out the rest of the story at the Huffington Post website.]

Arizona could have a new Ethnic Studies scandal on its hands, though not with the students or teachers.

Nearly one year ago, extremist Tea Party state senator John Huppenthal ran for Arizona's superintendent of education post with an inflammatory campaign to "stop la raza" and terminate Tucson's acclaimed Ethnic Studies/Mexican American Studies (MAS) Program.

At one of the most Orwellian press conferences in recent memory, Huppenthal kept his political campaign promise on Wednesday, June 15, at the Arizona Department of Education in Phoenix, declaring the Ethnic Studies/MAS Program to be out of compliance with the state's controversial ban. Huppenthal introduced a long-awaited and costly audit as proof that the MAS Program promoted resentment towards a race, was designed primarily for a particular ethnic race, and advocated ethnic solidarity. Within a few minutes, Huppenthal and his associate superintendent hastily exited the press conference for other engagements.

Just one glitch: On closer review, the audit -- which admittedly visited only 37% of the classes in the affected Tucson schools for a single 30-minute inspection -- contradicts most of Huppenthal's illusive claims and ultimately finds the MAS Program to be in compliance.

Not that the facts appear to bother the Tea Party politician, a featured speaker at Tea Party rallies that have catcalled President Obama as a "Communist" and "Nazi," or echoed Huppenthal's rants on the Senate floor that undocumented immigrants "nuclear-bombed" parts of Arizona's neighborhoods.

"This decision is not about politics, it is about education," Huppenthal read nervously from a printed statement. He proclaimed his "responsibility to uphold the law and a professional imperative to ensure every student has access to an excellent education."

In truth, the audit questions Huppenthal's own judgment: According to the audit, students in the MAS high school program "graduate in the very least at a rate of 5 percent more than their counterparts in 2005, and at the most, a rate of 11 percent more in 2010." The audit added:MASD programs are designed to improve student achievement based on the audit team's finding of valuable course descriptions aligned with state standards, commendable curricular unit and lesson plan design, engaging instruction practices, and collective inquiry strategies through Approved State Standards.

[Click on header to check out the rest of the story at the Huffington Post website.]

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