Friends,
We are excited to debut the new website for the Latino Coalition for Excellence in Higher Education (LC4EHE) at a moment when community, solidarity, and collective action are more important than ever.
Our successful People’s Hearing on Higher Education, held August 12, 2026, in Austin, brought together more than 100 participants and powerful testimonies from faculty, students, and community advocates concerned about growing threats to academic freedom, educational opportunity, civil rights, and the future of our public universities.
That hearing reminded us of something essential: We are not alone, and our collective voices matter. Our new website is a space to build community, share information, amplify our concerns, and organize around a common commitment to educational excellence, equity, and democratic accountability.
We invite you to visit our website, explore the People's Hearing report, share it widely, and join us in building the movement this moment demands.
As last Tuesday's midterm elections show, together, we can make a difference!
-Angela Valenzuela, Ph.D.
#LC4EHE #AcademicFreedom #HigherEducation #EducationalEquity #CommunityPower
The Latino Coalition for Excellence in Higher Education The Latino Coalition is a Texas-based network of educators, students, community leaders, and advocates committed to expanding educational opportunity and promoting equity in higher education for Latino/as and other historically underserved communities. It brings together individuals and organizations that share a commitment to educational excellence, civic engagement, and the success of all students in colleges and universities.
As the report notes, the hearing occurred “at an extraordinary moment in Texas higher education, when decisions once entrusted principally to faculty and universities are increasingly being shaped by political authority.” More than 100 people attended the hearing, and 26 witnesses submitted written testimonies. Together, their statements raised concerns about the growing threats to academic freedom, shared governance, and civil rights, as well as the dismantling of ethnic, women’s, gender, and sexuality studies at colleges and universities across Texas.
Consult the following for additional information: https://latinocoalitionhighered.org
FACT SHEET - THE ATTACK ON LATINO STUDIES AT UT
The Interim Dean of the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Texas, David Sosa, considered a proposal to dissolve the Department of Mexican American and Latino Studies (MALS) and merge it, and other ethnic and gender studies departments, into what ultimately became the newly-formed Department of Social and Cultural Analysis.
This restructuring plan is part of a coordinated effort at the federal, state, and university levels to eliminate Latino Studies at the University of Texas.
The Department of Mexican American and Latino Studies is one of the premier sites for the study of Latinos in the United States and Latino Studies faculty are internationally recognized for their scholarly excellence and grant-funded research projects. It contributes in essential ways to the teaching and research mission of Latino Studies at UT, which consists of the following entities: 1) the Department of Mexican American and Latino Studies; 2) the Center for Mexican American Studies and; 3) the Latino Research Institute.
MALS offers a Major and a Minor to undergraduates seeking to develop the cultural, linguistic, and historical competencies to thrive in the modern workforce of Texas (47% Latino). The Department provides excellent courses, academic programming and research opportunities to its students, and even attends to their personal needs through la tiendita, a food pantry, open to all students.
Since the passage of SB 17, which outlawed student services for underrepresented minorities on campus, we have stepped up to provide intellectual and personal support for Latino and non-Latino students on our campus.
Launched in 2018, the MALS PhD program has offered specialized training in numerous fields (history, political science, literature, folklore/anthropology, and digital humanities) to graduate students from across campus, as well as visiting students from Europe.
Over the last eight years the doctoral program has emerged as a national leader in PhD training, on par with UCLA’s Department of Chicano and Central American Studies. Each year, the program receives applications from students across the country who wish to learn from the nationally-recognized scholars in our department. Dr. María Cotera served as the director of our graduate program until October 2026 when she was appointed director of CMAS.
The Latino Research Institute (LRI) is part of the MALS Department. It supports policy-oriented interdisciplinary scholarship to improve the well-being of Latinos and their communities in Texas and nationwide. The new Director of the LRI, Dr. Nancy Rodriguez (recently recruited from the University of California-Irvine) is a national thought-leader on Latinos in the criminal justice system. Dr. Nancy Rodriguez is the Director of the LRI.
The Center for Mexican American Studies (CMAS) was founded in 1970 under the direction of Dr. Américo Paredes. Since that time, it has been one of the leading institutes for research on Mexican Americans and the Southwest. In 2025 it became the new home for Voces, an oral history project established by Dr. Maggie Rivas Rodriguez, dedicated to recording, preserving and disseminating the stories of Latinas and Latinos in the U.S. For over five decades, CMAS has provided a critical connection between the work we do in Latino Studies and the broader community of Texas.
Dr. Maggie Rivas Rodriguez was the Director of CMAS until October 2026. Today, Voces, is headed by MALS Professor C.J. Alvarez—now in the newly-formed Department of Social and Cultural Analysis.
Together, each of these academic and research units have made the University of Texas one of the leading institutions in the country for the study of the histories, cultures, and contemporary issues of Latinos in the U.S. As a testament to UT Latino Studies’ standing in the field nationally, the University of Texas was chosen as the site for the Latino Studies Association Conference in 2026.
Why the Interim Dean’s “Consolidation” Plan was a Bad Idea
The dissolution of the Mexican American and Latino Studies Department via its consolidation into the new Department of Social and Cultural Analysis is a setback on all the progress we have made over the last 50 years to ensure that our flagship institution adequately serves the needs of students, faculty and the citizens of Texas. Elimination of the major and minor in Mexican American and Latino Studies as widespread implications.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Latinos make up 47% of the Texas Workforce. Through our major and minor, we provide critical preparation to all UT students who wish to better understand the lives, histories, and heterogeneities of Latino communities in Texas’ Latino-dominant workforce. What will happen to students currently enrolled in our degree-programs? Will they be forced to change their degree plans to Social and Cultural Analysis? How will they prove workforce readiness without a degree that indicates rigorous and specialized study on Latino communities?
Our graduate program is nationally recognized as a leading center for doctoral study in the field of Latino Studies. We are training the next generation of scholars who will shape the field. How is it that the University of Texas really wants to give up this leadership role in the national conversation?
Unlike MALS, the LRI and CMAS are housed under the College of Liberal Arts. However, without any further specification as to their respective fates, their futures are in the balance.
The Interim Dean’s “consolidation” is a step back, not a step forward. It is resulting in severe, and possibly, irreparable damage to the UT’s reputation as an expansive and rigorous site for learning, inquiry, and the free exchange of ideas. Graduate students will stop applying, leading scholars will go elsewhere, research projects will end—this is the true aim of the Interim Dean’s plan.
Eliminating Latino Studies risks erasing over 50 years of hard work by students, community members, legislators, faculty, and administrators to ensure that the University of Texas properly serves the educational needs of the people of Texas. The call to “restructure” units that focus on race, ethnicity, and gender is not based on demand from students or faculty (who strongly support these units), or financial issues (they are all well-funded), it is based on an ideological belief that these fields are somehow “un-American” or hostile to “American values.”
To the contrary, these fields engage in evidence-based, rigorous (peer-reviewed) and careful scholarship based on “facts” not feelings. We need this fact-based knowledge to have the kinds of civil dialogues that are central to any healthy society. Far from “hostile,” these fields are central to open inquiry. No Education Without Representation!
Texas is currently a “majority minority” state. Some 40.2% of Texans are Hispanic/Latino, 12.2% Black, and 5.3% Asian. As the flagship university in Texas, the University of Texas has an obligation to serve the entire population of the state and prepare its students for a workforce that is currently 47% Latino/Hispanic.
What You Can Do
- Attend the UT Regents meeting, November 20, Sam Houston State University (Huntsville, Texas) Write a letter to University of Texas, administrators (president, provost, COLA dean) and the UT Regents. See letter template
- Learn about Our Voice at The People’s Hearing on Higher Education in Texas
- Read the report on the testimonies presented at the People’s Hearing on August 12, 2026, is available free of charge, courtesy of the Latino Coalition for Excellence in Higher Education (See QR Code below to access the report).
- The report gives voice to the concerns, experiences, and recommendations of faculty members, students, and representatives of Texas’s Latino community. It includes 27 written testimonies, a summary statement, policy recommendations, and source materials that examine the decline of Latino representation and influence in colleges and universities across Texas.
As many of you know, the Latino Coalition, an alliance of local and statewide organizations, organized the hearing to provide a public voice for those concerned about the dismantling of Mexican American, Latino, Women’s, and Gender and Sexuality Studies programs in Texas. We were especially concerned by actions taken by University of Texas officials, who eliminated academic programs, removed courses from the core curriculum, and ignored our two written requests for a meeting.
We sought to discuss their failure to follow established review procedures, which at a minimum require consultation with faculty, students, and other key stakeholders before major academic changes are made. The testimonies show that these decisions affect far more than individual programs.
They reduce educational opportunities for students, weaken the study of Texas’s diverse communities, and limit important areas of research and public discussion. Just as important, the report gives voice to those directly affected by these changes. If you wish to add your voice to protect academic opportunity, inclusion, and public responsibility, please send your inquiries to Emilio Zamora at Emiliosoliszamora@gmail.com.
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