U-Md. Weighs Creating Latino Studies Minor

Committee to Take Up Issue Today

Maryland's flagship public university has departments in African American Studies and Women's Studies. It has academic programs in Asian American Studies, Jewish Studies and Persian Studies. But there is no U.S. Latino Studies Program there -- or, for that matter, at any university in the mid-Atlantic region.

A 10-year campaign to establish a Latino studies program at the University of Maryland at College Park will hit a milestone today when a University Senate committee considers allowing students to minor in the field.

At a time when Latinos are the nation's largest and fastest-growing minority group, students and professors said approval would be only a first step toward meeting their academic needs.

"This has been extremely frustrating," said Ana Patricia Rodriguez, an assistant professor and longtime activist on the issue. "You can see the great need in our local area to have people who know about Latinos who can provide attention, services, et cetera. It is important for our students to graduate with this background, yet our hands are tied because we don't have a structure at the school."

University officials said they are making progress. About $120,000 was provided in 2006 by the then-provost to write a proposal for a minor in U.S. Latino Studies. Within the past month, the minor was approved by a panel in the College of Arts and Humanities as well as by its dean, James F. Harris.

Harris said he expects the minor to be approved and plans to give it two years to see if students enroll in the program and faculty members want to teach its courses. Harris would then consider broadening it to a full program. Expanding the program could cost $300,000 to $500,000 for new faculty and other resources, said Ruth Enid Zambrana, a professor in Women's Studies and the senior Latina faculty member on campus.

Latino studies is a complex, evolving field that focuses on the history, culture, literature and the social fabric of Latino communities in the United States. Obstacles to creating such programs include misunderstanding about the field and debate about whether such programs are legitimate scholarship. Lack of funding also is an issue. The Persian Studies center at College Park, for example, was established with a multimillion-dollar donation from an outside institute.

"There seems to be a common underpinning: the concern that it is simply a political project, whether as a variation of affirmative action, political correctness or inverse segregationist impulses among Latinos," said Vilma Santiago-Irizarry, director of the Latino Studies Program at Cornell University.

Politics, too, play a role: African American and Women's Studies programs were created in part because of political pressure when the two groups began to organize and become involved in the political process. Latinos are still finding their political voice.

College Park officials acknowledged the frustration but said they are moving forward in a number of areas, including putting Latino student advisers in key departments, planning events and responding to "an increasing demand for an academic program," said Nariman Farvardin, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs.

"It's critically important, however, to know that developing an academic program should not be a top-down process," he wrote in an e-mail. "Student demands must be measured against available resources and assurances that academic capacity and faculty expertise are in place."

Scholars said that public flagship universities have a special responsibility to serve Latino communities and that too many schools are giving short shrift to a group that represents 15 percent of the U.S. population and could reach 25 percent by 2050. Angel David Nieves, an assistant professor, was more blunt: "They are happy to have us cleaning their bathrooms and cooking their food, but they are not realizing the significance of how Latinos are the foundation of the region. I just don't know how [the university] can be a serious place without this kind of program."