Latino center in the works

The proposed Latino studies center at MU would be a resource in integrating immigrants into Missouri

By Diego Sorbara
Adelante staff writer

Taking another step to fulfill its mission as a land-grant school, MU is considering creating a Latino studies center. This center would not only benefit MU students and staff, but it would also reach out to Missouri Latinos and help continue the mission of the Cambio de Colores conference.
The Cambio de Colores conference series has been an incubator of sorts for the proposed center, and the 2004 conference in St. Louis set the stage. UM system President Elson Floyd announced at the conference that “a very lively conversation” has begun about launching such a center.
“One of the programs we do not have is a program that really does focus on Latino studies,” Floyd told the audience at the conference. “We need to make sure we have a full array of programs.”
As compared to other Big 12 schools, the UM system is “rather unique in its lack of Latino and Latin American studies,” according to a draft report on Latino studies by Domingo Martínez, former president of the Hispanic and Latin American Faculty and Staff Association. The report says that the UM system and Oklahoma State University are the only Big 12 schools without a Latin American studies or Chicano/Latino studies center or department.
Vice Provost of Minority Affairs Handy Williamson is strongly supportive of the prospect of such a center.
“It would be a tremendous opportunity for students to have a multicultural curriculum,” Williamson said. “There could be internships with the center and enhanced study abroad options. Latin America could become a more viable location for students who choose to study abroad.”
After three successful conferences, several of the organizers are proposing a plan that would institutionalize the event by creating a center that would function year-round. The idea of the center would be to serve as a resource for those working to integrate a major influx of Latino immigrants into the state’s population.
Corinne Valdivia, co-founder of the Cambio de Colores initiative and a part of the planning group for the center, is one of the faculty members who has been involved in these discussions. She has met with Williamson and with MU Provost Brady Deaton.
“Soon, a planning committee will be put together to see how this all looks,” Valdivia said. “But we haven’t said anything about how much we will need, as in funds.”
Although there are visible advantages to having a new program that specifically addresses the Latino community, disadvantages crop up when discussing the semantics or actually organizing such an effort.
“Advantages are that it might help MU attract additional Latino students and faculty, it might create additional campus activities as an outgrowth, it may become a popular major and it would increase the choices MU offers its students,” said Lori Franz, vice provost for undergraduate studies. “Disadvantages might include the need for additional faculty members and resources at a time when many areas are under-resourced.”
What Valdivia and others are proposing at this time would not be a Latino studies program of the kind offered by other universities — although such a development would be a welcome outcome.
Rather, Valdivia describes it as an extension of what Cambio de Colores already does — creating a clearinghouse for Latino-oriented research and solutions for problems encountered in working with the Latino community, among other things. It would also help facilitate the building of networks throughout the state and throughout the Midwest.
“The center would make sure what needs to be done, gets done,” Valdivia said.
Martínez, who co-coordinated the most recent Cambio conference, stressed that the project is a natural outgrowth of the university’s mission. As a land-grant institution, the University of Missouri is charged with serving the entire state with outreach programs such as University Extension, which has been a big part of the Cambio effort.
“This is not a program just to serve Latinos,” Martínez said. “The stakeholders are everyone in the state, and an important objective is to teach newcomers how to live in this complex society and to teach established people how to live with the newcomers. Who benefits from that? Everyone.”
Valdivia cited other ways the program could help Missouri Latinos by following up on the work produced by the conference series. One important area is working to improve what academics call the context of reception — that is, the environment in each community with regard to receiving the newcomers.
Examples from past conferences include working with the state attorney general’s office to improve access to documents in Spanish and providing more information about Latinos in Missouri to policymakers to help them keep that population in mind when making decisions. Other plans include collaborating with the university’s Office of Statistical and Economic Data Analysis to produce more reports that are pertinent to Latinos.
Williamson said that the possibility of a Latino studies program would be a boon to the university.
“It’s important to the university to get this going forward,” Williamson said. “We’re ready to work with them to move forward as fast as possible.”