Mexican American and Latina/o Studies helps students understand the people, history and culture that shape Texas. UT should restore it, professors Angela Valenzuela and Emilio Zamora write.
Concerns about the University of Texas’ commitment to a broad and inclusive education have grown since the dismantling of diversity, equity and inclusion programs on the Austin campus. Those concerns deepened recently when the College of Liberal Arts consolidated four important departments— African and African Diaspora Studies, American Studies,Mexican American and Latina/o Studies (MALS), and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies — into a new Department of Social and Cultural Analysis.
The decisionraises important questions about the university’s intentions, its academic mission, its contractual obligations to faculty members, staff and students, and whether administrators followed the review process such a significant restructuring requires.
The new Department of Social and Cultural Analysis is now responsible for administering four fully developed academic programs with hundreds of faculty members, staff and students, each grounded in their distinct histories, scholarly traditions and educational goals. That arrangement is not a viable proposition, given the scale of the undertaking and the difficulty of administering a bloated department. Whether its officials anticipate it or not, a perverse incentive exists to pare down the new department to more manageable proportions, thereby diminishing the intellectual and curricular integrity of the fields serving students across the university.
Universities exist not merely to transmit established knowledge but alsoto generate new knowledge, cultivate critical inquiry and help students understand the full complexity of the societies in which they live. As one of the state’s two flagship public universities, UT Austin bears a special responsibility to prepare students for leadership in an increasingly diverse state and nation.
Programs such as MALS help students understand the histories, cultures, labor, civic contributions and lived experiences that have shaped Texas for generations. Weakening fields dedicated to such study risks narrowing, rather than expanding, students' understanding of the state they will inherit and help lead.
Major restructuring like what has occurred at UT allows a university to bypass standard personnel and budgetary rules governing employment and funding arrangements. Faculty, staff and students in the affected departments have been left feeling deeply insecure. Theirs is an uncertain future at the university.
Equally troubling are questions about the process that led to the decision. University officials know the importance of consulting faculty, students, staff, alumni and community partners when making decisions of this magnitude. Yet consolidation was not fully explained to the public or to key stakeholders. Nor was it accompanied by a statement of anticipated impact.
The review committee appointed by university officials to explore the possibility of restructuring the College of Liberal Arts did not include faculty representation either from MALS or Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies. Also, the university has not solicited feedback or encouraged a public dialogue on such an important issue.
The Latino Coalition for Excellence in Higher Education, a statewide advocacy organization, has made formal requests to meet with UT President James Davis and discuss its concerns. He has not responded in three months.
Universities make difficult decisions all the time. But those decisions should be guided by sound educational policy, transparency and meaningful consultation with the communities they affect. In this case, the university has fallen short.
The consolidation sends an unsettling message that the study of Mexican history, labor, culture, civic life, and thought matters less today than during the last 50 years. Advocates of the other affected fields have been equally perplexed by the university’s undue actions.
UT Austin should restore MALS as an independent department. The university's responsibility is not to marginalize fields that help Texans understand themselves, but to ensure their continued strength and vitality for generations to come.
Angela Valenzuela is a professor of Educational Leadership and Policy at the University of Texas. Emilio Zamora is a professor emeritus in history at the University of Texas.
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