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University of Wyoming

College of Arts & Sciences Annual Report 2008 - 2009

Chicano Studies Program

 

Introduction: Chicano Studies is an interdisciplinary field of instruction and inquiry that primarily examines the social, economic, and political experience of U.S. Mexican origin Latinos/as.  Since Latinos have become the largest non-white racial/ethnic group in the United States and because their continued growth is expected for years to come, the importance of a Chicano Studies degree has taken on increasing importance for the University of Wyoming.  The Wyoming Mexican American experience dates back to the 16th century through Spanish conquest, exploration, and colonialism.  Today Mexican Americans are the dominant non-white racial/ethnic group in the state and on campus.

 

With guidance from its 2004 – 2009 academic plan, the dedicated Chicano Studies Program faculty continues to acquire local, regional, and national notoriety.  In particular, the Chicano Studies program assists the university and the College of Arts and Sciences in reaching goals related to diversity, interdisciplinarity, internationalization, access, and structure of the curriculum.  Below is a list of program highlights from the preceding fiscal year and summer.

 

Sponsored Events

·         The Faith Healer of Olive Avenue—Ross Hall Book Club Lecture by author Manuel Muñoz

·         “Beyond the Plight and Struggle of Chicano Education”–Hispanic Heritage Month Lecture, Dr. Guadalupe San Miguel Jr., University of Houston

·         “Muddy Water: Histories for the 21st Century” –Hispanic Heritage Month Lecture, Dr. Kenneth M. Orona, University of Colorado, Boulder

·         “Multiracial Macho: Hip Hop and Chicano Identity”–Hispanic Heritage Month Lecture, Dr. Louis “Pancho” McFarland, Chicago State University

·         “Latin@ Graduation Celebration”—Semana Primavera Student Recognition

 

Co-sponsored Events

·         Doin’ Time—A play by Ashley Lucas, directed by Maria Figueroa, Co-sponsored with the Theater and Dance Department

·         Sunsets and Margaritas – A play by Jose Cruz Gonzalez, Co-sponsored with the Theater and Dance Department

·         Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse – A play adapted by Kevin Kling, directed by Dr. Cecelia Aragon

·         “ReVisioning the Whole II: Curious Intersections” and “Teaching Creativity” -  Interdisciplinary Conference

·         “Three Theories of Discrimination in the Brown Collar Workplace” – Dr. Leticia Saucedo, University of Nevada Las Vegas, Co-sponsored with Social Justice Research Center

·         Tejano Dance Workshop – Dr. Guadalupe San Miguel Jr. and Dr. Cecelia Aragon

·         “The Story of Regional Competitiveness: How Jobs are Created for the People” – Dr. John Butler, University of Texas at Austin, Co-sponsored with Sociology

·         Selected Readings – Manuel Muñoz, University of Arizona, Co-sponsored with English

·         Sugar Beet Fields to Fields of Dreams, 1920s – 1960s: Mexican/Spanish Contributions to America’s Favorite Pastime – Baseball Exhibit by Jody L. and Gabriel A. Lopez

·         “Picturing Faith: Religious America in Government Photography, 1935-1943.” – Exhibit curator, Dr. Colleen McDannell, Co-sponsored with Religious Studies

·         Marin Luther King, Jr.: March and Days of Dialogue – Co-sponsor

·         Breast Cancer Monologues – Denver based project designed to educate Hispanic women and others about breast cancer, Co-sponsored with KOCA and PACMWA

·         The History of Red-Brown Journalism & Communication – Class coinciding with the “Voices for Justice Project” – Celebrating 200 years of Latina/Latino Journalism

·         UW Election Night – Co-sponsored with Political Science and African American Studies

·         The Good Mule Project – UW Social Responsibility Website and Student Leadership Training Program

·         Celebration of Diversity – ASUW Diversity Celebration

·         “Language, Culture, and Globalization: Readings from “Wizard of the Crow” – Guest Lecturer Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Novelist, Co-sponsored with African American Studies

 

Academic Planning Implementation: Below is a brief review of progress made towards action items listed in the Chicano Studies Academic Plan II.

 

CHST 1.        Assessment of the six Chicano Studies student learning outcomes has been completed.  Analysis of the data indicates that student learning outcomes are being met in lower- and upper-division and core and non-core courses.  A refereed journal article is being prepared for submission.

 

CHST 2.        The streamlining of the Chicano Studies minor curriculum has facilitated the timely completion of requirements.  Exit interviews with CHST minors indicate the desire for a broader range of course offerings.

 

CHST 3.        A Freshman Interest Group, an Intellectual Community course, and a Study Abroad course continue to experience collaboratively success with other interdisciplinary programs.  Exit interviews with CHST minors indicate the wish for more courses dealing with other U.S. Latino ethnic groups.

 

CHST 4.        Interdisciplinary curriculum and faculty partnerships within and outside of Chicano Studies’ traditional core disciplinary areas of the humanities and social sciences have not made much forward progress since last year’s annual report.

 

CHST 5.        The relocation of ethnic and women’s studies interdisciplinary programs has proved beneficial and is providing opportunities for synergistic collaboration on a number of events and program.  A Chicano Studies graduate minor will be submitted for review in the next academic year.  Exit interviews with CHST minors suggest that a CHST and/or Ethnic Studies distributed major degree program would be received well by students.

 

Teaching Activities: Drs. Aragon (Theater and Dance), Muñoz (Criminal Justice), and Zamudio (Sociology) continue to provide the majority of programmatic teaching and service support.  Additional teaching resources were provided by three temporary instructors (Adrian Molina, Jurist Doctorate; Dr. Ernest Duran, Adult Learning and Technology; Dr. Susana Muñoz, Educational Leadership and Policy Studies), one graduate instructor (Marissa Johnson-Valenzuela, English MFA); and four non-affiliated faculty (Lawson-Borders, African American Studies; Gage, Women’s Studies/African American Studies; Mbugwa, Agriculture/African American Studies; Preston, History). 

This instructional faculty was responsible for teaching three core courses (44 students), one two non-core courses (9 students), and one independent study project in the summer session of 2008; four core courses (69 students on campus, 31 Outreach), one non-core course (19 students), and one independent study project in the fall semester of 2008; two core courses (21 students on campus, 30 Outreach),  and five non-core courses (81 students, 19 Outreach), and one independent study project in the spring semester of 2009.

Student teaching evaluations show considerable praise for Chicano Studies faculty and course curricula.  Nevertheless, an additional faculty line is needed in order to offer a broader array of courses in all core areas in general, and the humanities in particular.  It also can help continue the increased level of distance learning and development of more USP diversity courses.

Internationalization prospects appear sound as Dr. Muñoz moved closer towards the institutionalization of a study abroad course through CHST / HIST / INST 4485: U.S. Latino Diaspora.  Funding has been secured for a 09-10 winter session course offering for travel to Mérida, Mexico. In addition, Dr. Muñoz, with the help of an International Programs Travel Grant, will design a comparative criminology course focusing on transnational crime trends and explanations, with a study abroad component in México.

Efforts to broaden the curriculum at the programmatic, departmental, college, and university levels continue to be successful.  U.S. Latino Diaspora was de-cross listed from Spanish in favor of an International Studies cross listing.  The course will be submitted for USP global (G) and diversity (D) status early next year.  Dr. Zamudio’s U.S. Women of Color special topics course was as approved as a permanent course (CHST / AAST / WMST 4675) and received a USP D approval as well. 

Dr. Aragón offered a special topics course on U.S. Latino Theatre for the first time this past spring.  The course garnered high visibility throughout the spring semester with two playwrights visiting campus to perform and guest lecture for the course.  Discussions are underway with Theatre and Dance and English to submit the course for a permanent course offering and with USP CA & D status.  Dr. Aragón is considering a study abroad component for the course as well.

Temporary instructor Dr. Susana Muñoz submitted and received USP D approval for CHST / WMST 3200: Perspectives in Chicana Studies.  The course scheduled for a summer 09 offering currently has 30 students enrolled.  Discussions are underway with Education Studies to submit the special topics course Latin@s in Education for a permanent course approval and USP D status.  Drs. Susana Munoz and Francisco Rios will be available to teach this cross-college offering.  This will not be the first time Chicano Studies will have interdisciplinary courses offered across colleges.  The USP C & D course “Agriculture: Rooted in Diversity” is offered with the College of Agriculture.

There was continued success for the USP intellectual community and diversity (I, D) course AAST / AIST / AMST / CHST / INST / WMST 1030: Social Justice in the 21st Century.  This course serves as the anchor course for the interdisciplinary Freshman Interest Group (FIG) Social Justice in the 21st Century.  A mainstay of the course and its success has been service learning.  This year, under the direction of Kendra Gage, the class collaborated with Habitat for Humanity of Laramie, Wyoming.  The students participated in a variety of tasks both off- and onsite.  Several students helped with construction, while others helped develop accounting information spreadsheets; brochures used to show homeowners different choices for colors of carpet, kinds of cabinets, etc.; a landscaping project that included affordable plants native to the Laramie elevation and climate; and fundraising project centered around a baseball tournament.  The Office of Academic Affairs once again has decided to offer Social Justice in the 21st Century as part of its Fall 2009 menu of Freshman Interest Groups.  Dr. Eric Sandeen from American Studies will be the instructor of record for the upcoming semester’s course offering. 

Finally, work is nearing completion for the publication of a refereed journal article on Chican@ Studies assessment of student learning.  The many curricular and co-curricular events sponsored by Chicano Studies continues to bring the program high visibility as it addresses some of the most pressing social, economic, and political issues in contemporary society.  Additional evidence manifests in the many independent study projects and graduate student program committees faculty are called upon to direct and/or serve on.

 

Research and/or Creative Activities:  Programmatic and departmental parallel tenure and promotion reviews have provided consistent assessment and feedback to CHST faculty whose research and creative activities can be difficult to evaluate due to its highly interdisciplinary nature.  Overall, the CHST faculty continues to make significant research and/or creative contributions both to Chicana/Latina Studies and their respective home disciplinary fields. 

Dr. Margaret Zamudio continues her work on two book manuscripts.  The Making of Latina/o Working Class will round out her research on immigrant Latina/o labor.  An Introduction to Critical Race Theory in Education is cross-disciplinary collaboration with scholars in Education Studies, American Indian Studies, African American Studies and Law.  Her current collaborative work “Representative Democracy in Rural America” was presented during a roundtable session at the annual meeting of LatCrit: Latina & Latino Critical Theory, Inc.

            Dr. Cecilia Aragón continues to be productive and her work is being recognized at the regional level.  She recently received the Faculty Excellence Recognition-University Scholar award at the Region VII Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival for her article, “Social Protest as Social Performance: Examining Oppositional Performances with Latina/o Youth,” published in Northwest Theatre Journal.  She presented “Teaching Artists: Curriculum, Training, and Scholarship in Developing Theatre Education Endorsement” at the American Alliance for Theatre and Education meetings, and “Tragic Hero or Social Bandit?: The Politics of Cultural Production on the Folk Narratives of Billy the Kid” at the Southwest Texas Popular Culture and American Culture Association.  In the coming months she will be busy with revisions to her monograph, Borderlands Children’s Theatre: A History of Chicana/o Theatre for Young Audiences that was received favorably by the University of Arizona Press.

            Dr. Ed A. Munoz’ continues to be productive in the fields of Sociology, Criminal Justice and Chicana/Latino Studies.  In the past year, the edited Chican@ Critical Perspectives and Praxis at the Turn of the 21st Century: Selected Papers from the 2002, 2003, & 2004 NACCS Proceedings was published.  In press are two chapters for the Encyclopedia of Race and Crime.  He presented "Institutional Goals, Programs, and Community Based Scholarship" at the National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies annual meeting. He continues to work on immigration reform and scholarship of teaching articles.  Another developing avenue of inquiry is social context, culture, criminal offending, and parenting outcomes.

            Part-time instructional faculty members are very active with research and creative activities as well.  Dr. Susana Muñoz published a collaborative book chapter that covers the historical and contemporary activism of Latino fraternities and sororities.  She is busy preparing for review, her dissertation findings on immigrant women’s persistence and higher education success.  Most recently, Susana was selected to attend the Association for the Study of Higher Education Institute on Critical Policy Research and Analysis.  This institute, a collaborative effort with the Ford Foundation, is designed to increase the range and effectiveness of scholarship on racial equity in higher education.

            Marissa Johnson-Valenzuela recently completed her MFA thesis.  She had a short story accepted for publication in Isotope: A Journal of Literary Nature and Science Writing.  She presented “Punk Rock, Queers and Battles against Saturn: How new writers such as Manuel Muñoz push Chicana/o Literature” at the National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies meeting.  She has been accepted to Voices of Our Nations Arts Foundation (VONA) and will participate in a San Francisco workshop for writers of color this summer.

            Adrian Molina, a UW Criminal Justice and Sociology and Jurist Doctorate alumnus, has established himself as an accomplished interdisciplinary instructor teaching courses for several academic units including Chicano Studies, the Honors Program, and the UW High School Institute. Several of his courses are taught online as he is also a prolific poet and hip hop performer.  In the past year he has had two self-published creative works, Up Before Sunrise a long play CD and Molina Soleil: The Age of Revision a book of poems. He performs nationally and internationally (UK) at numerous college/high school campuses and music venues.

 

Service, Extension and Outreach Activities:  The program plays a critical role in advancing the University’s commitment to diversity with numerous students, staff, and faculty providing their expertise and effort for various committees and projects at the programmatic, departmental, college, university, state, regional, and national levels.  The Chicano Studies Program works collaboratively with Movimiento Estudiantíl Chicano/a de Aztlán (MEChA), Sigma Lambda Gamma Sorority, Inc., Multicultural Affairs, the President’s Advisory Council for Minority and Women’s Affairs, the Social Justice Research Center, and the Wyoming Humanities Council to develop and implement programming for campus and non-campus communities that highlight Latino history and culture (i.e., Hispanic Heritage Month, Semana Primavera, Cancer Monologues).

In addition, the faculty is often called upon to provide keynote and inspirational remarks for ethnic/minority recruitment and retention programs offered by the Division of Student Affairs and non-campus entities (i.e., Minority Higher Education Day, Orientation Resource Fair, Campus Pass Resource Fair, and Discovery Days).  This marked academic/student affairs collaboration allows for enhanced services, recognition, and honors for Latina/o students.

The faculty participates in a number of local, regional, and national academic and non-academic conferences/seminars/meetings/workshops Dr. Ed Muñoz presented a paper at the National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies annual meeting. At the university level, he serves as the Interdisciplinary Studies Faculty Senate Representative and is an at-large member of the Faculty Senate Executive Committee where he served on a number of ad hoc committees.  He served as an advisory board member for WySAC and the Social Justice Research Center.  At the community level, Dr. Muñoz serves on the KOCA 93.5 FM, La Radio Montañesa advisory board and coaches youth soccer.

      At the national level, Dr. Aragón serves as the Vice President of the Women and Theatre Program of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education.  At the state level, she continues serving as an adjudicator for the Wyoming State Drama competition.  At UW she serves as the faculty advisor for MEChA. 

Dr. Susana Muñoz has presented her research at professional association meetings of the Association for the Study of Higher Education Conference and the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators.  For the latter organization, she served as the Latina/o Institution coordinating leader and will serve as a summer faculty member for the NASPA Undergraduate Fellows Program. This program works to increase the presence of ethnic-minority, disabled, and LGBT students in higher education and student affairs.  Most recently, she provided the keynote address for the 10th Annual Multicultural Leadership Awards Reception at the University of Toledo (Ohio).

Adrian Molina’s service and outreach activities consist of consulting with cultural/youth empowerment programs such as the National Hispanic Cultural Center, Albuquerque, NM; Del Alma, Durango, CO; HOPE, Wyoming Latina Youth Conference, Laramie, WY; El Grupo Juveníl, Portland, OR; Sisters of Color United for Education (Soul’d Roots Conference), Denver, CO; and Teton County Library, Jackson, WY.  He volunteers his artistic talents nationally with Youth Speaks Living Word Festival, San Francisco, CA; Fight w/ Food, Denver & Arvada, CO; Graham Street Productions, Portland, OR; and El Grupo Juvenil, Portland, OR.

Marissa Johnson-Valenzuela has been instrumental in organizing and implementing cultural programs on campus for both the Chicano Studies Program and the Social Justice Research Center.  She is active with many student organizations and her participatory research agenda involves summer volunteer work with indigenous Zapatista communities in Chiapas, Mexico.

Presently, there is no Memorandum of Understanding with the Outreach School, nor is there an extensive community college articulation or relation.  However, this may change soon as Chicano Studies Program and the Outreach School are collaborating to offer courses videoconferencing, online, and hybrid videoconferencing/online lower and upper division courses.  In the coming year, there will be videoconferencing and online offerings of Intro to Chicano Studies (1100), a hybrid course offering of Chicano History (2370), and an online course offering of Perspectives in Chicana Studies (3200).  

Long-range goals are twofold.  In general, the program can assist in delivering more USP course offerings to community college students planning to transfer to UW.  In addition, CHST course offerings through the Outreach School can help in recruiting minority students who have been found to attend community colleges prior to attending a four-year institution at a higher rate than their non-minority counterparts.

 

Student Recruitment and Retention Activities and Enrollment Trends: Since the Chicano Studies Program has no official FTEs it is difficult to interpret OIA data with a reasonable level of reliability and validity.  In addition, the Chicano Studies Program offers only a minor degree program.  In any case, OIA data shows that student credit hours increased (561 – 687) by 22.2% from the 2001 – 2002 to the 2007 – 2008 AYs.  This increase was made possible through a marked increase of 1,133.3% in summer student credit hours from the summer of 2002 (9) to the summer of 2008 (111).  There is a precipitous drop in student credit hours from the peak 2006 – 2007 AY (880) to the 2007 – 2008 (576) AY of -34.5%.  During the peak AY, Drs. Francisco Rios and Carmelita Castañeda from Education Studies taught courses for the Chicano Studies Program through a shared faculty resources agreement between the Colleges of Arts and Sciences and Education.  

 This increase in student credit hours occurred despite a 38.0% decrease in the average student class size (30.8 – 19.1) during the 01 – 02 to 07 – 08 AYs.  A trend towards faculty stability and assessment of student learning helps explain this decrease.  Prior to the 2004 – 2005 AY, most of the student credit hours came about through upper-level courses taught by a non-tenure track temporary lecturer.  Afterwards with the instructional support of three appointed tenure-track faculty, and the assistance of adjunct and non-affiliated tenure-track and tenured faculty, the curriculum was broadened with attention to developing critical thinking through oral and written capabilities.  The faculty agreed that lower course enrollments were necessary in order to effectively instruct and assess academically rigorous courses that involved increased levels of reading comprehension and writing assignments for all core and non-core curriculum courses. 

This philosophical and pedagogical decision, along with the streamlining and regular offering of CHST courses has allowed for a marked increase in registered CHST minors (300%) during the six-year time period 01-02 (n = 2; 2)  – 06-07 (n = 8; 6) and completed minor degrees (200%).  Several strategies for recruitment and retention have been implemented to increase these numbers, which have dropped in recent years to 01 – 02 AY levels.  For example, a welcome letter from the CHST director and program flyers are part of student packets for programs such as Minority Higher Education Day.  Additional efforts have been cultivated through regular participation with Weeks of Welcome; Resource Fairs, Discovery Days, and the Summer Session Fair. 

Other recruitment efforts include formal and informal efforts by affiliated faculty in the completion of their teaching, research, and service related responsibilities.  Faculty often make known the merits of a Chicano Studies degree in their courses, through collaborative independent research projects, at academic conferences and invited speaking engagements, and through non-academic organizational participation (i.e., Wyoming Latino/a Coalition). 

Recruitment and retention are distinct, yet reciprocal efforts.  Because of this, programmatic retention efforts are inextricably tied with recruitment efforts that are outlined above.  Specific retention efforts include involving students in faculty research and recognition of extraordinary achievement.  Latina/o graduates were recognized at the sixth annual Chicano Studies graduation dinner.  Marissa Johnson-Valenzuela was the recipient of the second Chicano Studies/Board of Visitors student service award.

 

Development Activities and Public Relations: The beginning phases of a systematic plan for development are underway and expected to develop long-term gift giving to the Chicano Studies Program. We expect donations gifts to increase with the help of a formal solicitation letter that is sent out annually in November to a growing alumni data base collaboratively created with the Arts and Sciences development office.  Most promising is joint work with the UW Minority Alumni Committee.  This committee was created in the spring semester and hosted informational and organizational meetings on campus coinciding with the Office of Multicultural Affairs Multicultural Graduation celebration. 

             The program does use a variety of public relations outlets to inform constituents about the program’s endeavors and successes.  A colorful brochure showcases the program and is regularly disseminated at campus and non-campus events such as Discovery Days, Family Weekend, Orientation Resource Fair, and Western Nebraska Minority Youth Conference. A recruitment email was developed for the Office of Admissions to send to students indicating an interest in the Chicano Studies Program. 

The inaugural issue of the program’s newsletter, El Clamor de Estudios Chicana/o was distributed in the fall semester, with the second issue disseminated in the spring.  Regular and special advertisements of the program’s events and programs are published in the campus newspaper.  Periodic updates about the program’s scholarly contributions are announced through the College of Arts and Science newsletter.  Faculty are been called upon to facilitate workshops, deliver keynote remarks and public seminars, and provide expert testimony for governmental and non-governmental agencies. 

Many of these newsworthy events are integrated links on the CHST website that is maintained and updated by the CHST office associate.  A newsletter and a newsletter archive link have been added to the website.  Links for events, giving, and relevant Chicano/Latino websites such as the National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies and LatCrit: Latina/o Critical Legal Theory, Inc. are also available.  

 

Classified and Professional Staffing: The CHST office associate plays a critical role in providing efficient administrative service. In addition to providing general receptionist support, he quickly and competently performs the various administrative duties associated with an academic program (i.e., budgetary items, course loading, event programming, publications, etc.).  Efficient supervision of a student work-study allowed for increased participation in university wide extra-curricular activities (i.e., Discovery Days, Resource Fairs, etc.); flawless planning and logistical support for study abroad activities; and the updating of bulletin boards and display cases that highlight the program’s many accomplishments, student learning outcomes, and upcoming events and award deadlines.

 

Diversity: The Chicano Studies Program did not conduct a faculty hire in the previous year, nor does it have a graduate study program.  Considering its limited resources, the program continues to be instrumental towards increasing diversity in the college and the university primarily through curricular instruction (537 USP D credit hours) and extracurricular programming (see section 1).  Efforts to increase diversity in the Chicano Studies program must take into consideration the implications of renaming the program to Chicana/Latino Studies.  This is an issue contained in the program’s academic plan and one that is sure to produce healthy and reflective debate. 

 

Assessment of Student Learning: The program’s mission, goals, and student learning outcomes can be found on the CHST (http://uwadmnweb.uwyo.edu/ChicanoStudies/) and UW Student Learning Assessment websites (http://uwadmnweb.uwyo.edu/AcadAffairs/assessment/pages/).  Assessment activities for the past year focused on completing data analysis related to Chicano Studies student learning outcomes developed in the 2005 – 2006 AY.  In addition, the director and outside faculty member met informally over lunch with a graduating Chicano Studies minor and a graduating non-minor.

            Independent readers of written assignments from African American and American Indian Studies have concluded that CHST faculty members are meeting student learning outcomes through their lower- and upper-division core and non-core instructional efforts.  It was agreed upon by the faculty to discuss substantive findings more in-depth over the course of the academic year to determine better if any necessary changes to the curriculum and/or student learning outcomes were necessary. 

The director and an outside reader have yet to submit a report of the findings.  The summer months have been dedicated to this task so that refinements to the process can be implanted in a timely manner.  In addition, the process and findings will be submitted for refereed review to Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies.

The majority of the Chicano Studies curriculum is courses approved for University Studies Program requirements.  Thus, the upcoming academic year will be devoted to mandated USP assessment activities.  After this task is accomplished, we will begin with the second iteration of assessing student learning outcomes.

At this point, the main accomplishment is that this task has been completed successfully with a patchwork faculty that has major service commitments to their home departments.  This speaks to the dedication of the faculty to ensure that Chicano Studies remains a vital and highly respected component of the UW Academic landscape.  The process has not been without difficulty and what we have learned, and all ready knew, was the program needs non-split permanent faculty lines in order to move forward with their teaching, research, and service mission in the coming years.

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