Academic Senate votes on programs

The process to departmentalize the César E. Chávez
Center for Interdisciplinary Instruction in Chicana/o Studies, as
well as the Interdisciplinary Program for Asian American Studies,
has recently faced some unforeseen obstacles.

Though departmentalization is almost complete for the Chicana/o
studies program, the issue of its name has proven to be
controversial.

In the departmentalization process, a number of steps must be
taken. Most recently, the departmentalization of the Chicana/o
program has been approved by the Faculty Executive Board of the
Academic Senate.

It was forwarded to the executive vice chancellor and now just
awaits final approval.

Program members are confident that the interdepartmental program
will be officially recognized as a department, since it has been
approved by all the necessary groups.

“The whole review process in the Academic Senate was very
supportive of its departmentalization as an instructional
unit,” said Professor Clifford Brunk, Academic Senate
chairman.

The controversy surrounding the would-be department is whether
or not its name will be recognized.

Currently, there are no departments at UCLA named after any
particular person, and executive board members fear setting a
precedent.

Naming a department after a certain person would imply that the
entire department focuses its curricula on that person, Brunk said,
adding that this would restrict its breadth and research.

The executive board avoided the naming issue when it approved
the departmentalization. Therefore, the decision on the name will
lie solely on the executive vice chancellor’s shoulders.

Eligio Martinez, Academic Affairs commissioner of the
Undergraduate Students Association Council, doubts the vice
chancellor will approve.

Martinez feels there is a misunderstanding about what the name,
César Chávez, means.

“That center stands for what (Chávez) did. Taking his
name away is like taking away the department’s
identity,” Martinez said.

Brunk emphasized that declining to name the department after the
activist is in no means a bias against Chávez himself.

“It would be highly inappropriate to attach a surname to a
department,” Brunk said.

The other ethnic studies program currently in the process of
departmentalization is the Interdisciplinary Program for Asian
American Studies.

Since establishing a department would not require additional
money from the university, faculty members are optimistic about the
possibility for approval for the program.

“We are hopeful that departmentalization will happen
soon,” said Professor Min Zhou, the interdepartmental
chairwoman for Asian American studies.

There may be concern that if an interdepartmental program
becomes departmentalized, a trend will start among other
interdepartmental programs, Zhou said.

This is worrisome for the administration because there could be
an explosion in the number of departments at UCLA.

“If this is true, it is not fair,” Zhou said.
“The focus should be made on intellectual merit and more on
undergraduate education and curriculum.”

Since the Asian American studies program has been running and
operating with great strength as an interdepartmental program,
changing it into a department may seem to be fixing a non-existent
problem, Zhou said.

Departmentalizing the program will allow faculty to be recruited
for specific Asian American curricula, as opposed to hiring based
on priorities from different departments.

The Undergraduate Council of the Academic Senate voted on the
Asian American studies department at its June 4 meeting.

The vote resulted in a split, with three members approving and
three members disapproving the program’s departmentalization.
There were also some abstentions.

The proposal will be presented to the undergraduate and graduate
councils on Friday for another vote. Opinions of both councils will
be more firmly set following this presentation.