UNLV Ethnic Studies program background and list of needs

INTRODUCTION
The Ethnic Studies Program at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas was essentially a Black Studies Program until the arrival of the current Director in 1971. The 1971 General Catalog lists fourteen (14) courses with only five being core Ethnic Studies courses. Those five courses totalled twenty (20) credit hours as each -we¥e listed at four credits. The remaining nine courses spread over five other departments totalled twenty seven (27) credits. Each of the courses in the latter category were three (3) credit courses. The distinction of the credit hours for the two categories of classes placed Ethnic Studies at a disadvantage. Fewer students would enroll because of the additional costs.
The original purpose of the Program was to (1) serve as a bridge between the university and the minority community (2) to assit ih allaying the possibility of racial unrest on the campus and (3) to provide courses in ethnic consciousness for the minority student enrollment.
Beginning with the school year 1972-73, the director had altered the credit hour value of each course from four to three and had established three (3) additional courses pertaining to Native Americans, Hispanic Americans and Asian Americans. By school year 1973-74 there were fourteen (14) Ethnic Studies courses at three credit hours each for a total of forty two (42) credit hours. Clearly the Program was growing—at least in the area of catalog .listings. No new full time faculty was hired and those courses having to do with the variety of ethnic groups were taught by part-time instructors from the community or by interested faculty from the established departments on campus.
No degree of any kind was offered by the Ethnic Studies Program during those early years. By late 1974 and early 1975 a minor degree program was being developed and by 1976 was listed in the General Catalog. The future of the Program, at this point, was uncertain. The Director had received a letter of termination and there was no discussion as to replacing the position,, A challenge to the termination was made and after an eight year struggle it was rescinded by the University. The Program, however, was put on permanent hold.
II. PROGRAM NEEDS
A.
Faculty Positions
The Ethnic Studies Program has long needed additional full time faculty members. At this point two new faculty members would place the Program in a position to carry out its original objectives. Currently, there are two full- time faculty members in the Ethnic Studies Program with specific specialization and identification with the Hispanic and Black communities and student body. There is a need for a Native American faculty member and for an Asian American faculty member. Such faculty is necessary not so much to teach the histories of the several groups but to offer courses pertaining to the minority experience in the United StatesOnly faculty who are members of those groups can begin to internalize and teach subjects having to do with the question of what it is like being a member of that group and being nurtured in the United States.
B.
Graduate Student Support
The Ethnic Studies Program is desirous of offering a M.A. degree designed for elementary and secondary school teachers. It has become more and more
apparent that there is a need to provide American students, beginning in the lower grades with exposure to the minority presence in the United States. The growing numbers of supremacist groups and their effects on America’s young makes it more and more apparent that steps must be taken to not only strive to enhance the self-concepts of the subject minority groups but to also affect, in a positive way, the manner in which those groups are perceived by non-minority groups.
In offering a M.A. degree the need for graduate student support is clear. Initially, there would be little need for research assistants. A minimum of two assistantships would be necessary.
C.
Physical Facilities
The Ethnic Studies Program is currently housed within the Anthropology Department. A continuation of that relationship appears to be becoming more and more doubtful. The Program has no desire of becoming affiliated with yet another Department. If the marriage between Ethnic Studies and Anthropology should be terminated, the Program with seek its proper share of the community property which it has helped to create over the past twenty years and once having done that it would seek to become an independent department. Whether a split occurs or not, there are certain physical facilities which would become necessary. There would obviously be a need for office space for the four Ethnic Studies faculty members (the two which are currently here and the two on the "wish" list). Further, there would be a need for office space for a full-time secretary and a part-time assistant and office space for two teaching assistants. Additionally, Additionally, there would be a need for a combination conference/study room and a room for storing audio-visual equipment and associated materials, limited computer space and an in-house library.
D.
Personnel Needs
Whether Ethnic Studies remains a part of the Anthropology Department or not, if the M.A. program is approved, there will be a need for the following additional personnel.
1.
Native American faculty member.
2.
Asian American faculty member.
3.
Full time office manager.
4.
Part time office assistant.
5.
Two teaching assistants.
III. FACULTY PROFILES
A.
Current Strength of Program Faculty
The two faculty members of the Ethnic Studies Program are able to address in a very specific manner the subject matter of the racial groups of their own
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racial identity. Further, they are able to identify certain common trends, issues, conditions of other racial minorities owing to the shared experience which all racial minorities undergo in the United States. It should be noted that the Ethnic Studies Program concentrates its efforts on racial minorities in the United States and not racial groups worldwide. While there are carryovers which each of the target groups possess from their cultural heritage, the focus of the Program has to do directly with the question: "What is it like to be a racial minority in the United States?" The nurturing and disposition of such groups is far different from that of a person of the same race living in Mexico, Asia or Africa. Further, unlike what might be commonly thought, while there are certain profound similarities in the treatment of racial minorities nationwide, the specific problems of blacks in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Atlanta, Denver and other places are different than those encountered by blacks in Las Vegas. The same is true of Hispanic, Asian and Native Americans. Because one of the objectives of the Program is to serve as a laison between the university and the several racial minority communities found in Nevada and especially in southern Nevada, it is imperative that Ethnic Studies faculty not only be able to distinguish between the needs of racial minorities in this community as opposed to other places but that they also develop specialization and contact within the several present minority communities.
Curricula vitae, available in the department office will reveal the following of current faculty.
1.
Publications in both scholarly and layman sources of the history and conditions of racial groups in southern Nevada.
2.
Numerous contacts with the racial communities through public talks/ presentations, media exposure, and organizational involvement which meets the needs of serving as laison between the university and the minority communities.
3.
Service on boards and as members of minority organizations within the state.
4.
Consultancies for both minority and non-minority local and state agencies.
5.
Sponsors of minority organizations on campus.
6.
Service as mentors primarily for minority students but also for nonminority students.
7.
Advisor for students enrolled in classes campuswide who are involved in research having to do with minority subject matter in the absence of minority faculty in the overwhelming number of academic departments on campus.
8.
Serving as sounding boards for both faculty and students in addition to the ordinary responsibilities of a faculty member.
9.
Service on both college and university committees where the absence of such service usually translates to the absence of minority input for such committes due to the small number of minority faculty on campus
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B.
Undergraduate Program Design and Quality
The Ethnic Studies Program takes great pride in what it has managed to accompolish over the past twenty years with almost no university support or recognition. At a time when the Anthropology Department was experiencing difficulties in filling its classes, Ethnic Studies classes were top heavy. The FTEs generated by Ethnic Studies helped stabalize the overall student numbers for the entire department and made it possible not only to justify then current faculty for the department but also to provide the basis for some additional faculty for the department. In spite of the fact that the Ethnic Studies Program carried the load, no new faculty was provided for the program.
The undergraduate portion of the Program will remain essentially the same—offering a minor degree but with no desire to offer a B.A. The reason for this is that there is not yet a ready job market for holders of a B.A. degree in Ethnic Studies. During its existence (without having ready access to the exact figures) the Ethnic Studies Program has met the needs of over six thousand (6,000) students. Clearly there is no doubt that the Program is cost effective, efficiently run and attractive to a large number of students. Those students, incidentially, have been approximately twenty five percent non minority students. I do not recally any Ethnic Studies class, offered during a regular semester, which did not carry.
C.
Proposed Graduate Program
Both current members of the Ethnic Studies Program have numerous contacts withing the local school district. Both deliver lectures/talks in classrooms from elementary through secondary grades. Many evening and summer school Ethnic Students are classroom teachers. Many have said that they would be interested in a M.A. in Ethnic Studies. In observing the numbers of graduate students currently enrolled in many departments here on campus, I am certain that a M.A. program in Ethnic Studies could at least match those numbers. Further, as this nation becomes more and more ethnic, the need to provide classroom teachers not only with teaching techniques, provided by the Education Department, but also with hard subject matter and a better understanding of their clients becomes more and more apparent. An M.A. degree in ethnic studies has a functional place in the public and private schools of America.
We chould not wait until the future is here and respond to it then. To do so would mean voluntarily allowing ourselves to be placed in a position where we would have to plajjje catch-up for the duration. As an "up and coming university" it seems that we ought to anticipate future demographic changes, plan for them, put into place programs which will address those changes and be prepared to be able to say to the future when it gets here, and it will: "Hi, we’ve been waiting for you."
The destructive element of Black Studies and Ethnic Studies programsy around the country, which grew out of the chaos of the 1960s bears testamint
to how digestible such programs are when they must be created over night.
There are yet many faculty members here at UNLV who harbor resentment toward
the Ethnic Studies Program because they feel it was shoved down their throats. We must not allow this to happen for a second time. Society is much different today than it was thirty years ago.
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D.
M.A. Program Design and Quality
The objectives of the M.A. program are: (1) To provide a mechinism by which the study of racial minorities can begin and continue from the early grades of elementary school, through secondary schools and on into the university. (2) To provide the university the opportunity to assume a leadership role in helping solve a problem which this nation has avoided facing, realistically, for centuries. (3) To provide students with such a wealth of information on the subject of racial minorities that they will have cause to putting an end to the pidgeonholing which has traditionally been done when it comes to minority students. (4) To allow other departments on campus to participate actively in course offerings and thereby give them pause to seriously consider hiring minority faculty into those departments and not just rest on the laurels of having "An Equal Opportunity Employer" affixed to their letterheads. (5) To convince faculty, staff and students that the study of the subject of racial minorities is not analogous to studying a foreign culture. Minority group Americans are not foreigners® They are part of "WE THE PEOPLE.
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