Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan (MEChA), the Chicano student organization at the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, did not participate in hosting elections for the Interim Multi-Cultural Center Advisory Board. The notion of a Multi-Cultural Center evolved as a direct result of the closing of the Afro-American Community Service Center (AACSC), the building that today may still house the Chemistry Tutorial program at UW-Madison, on 1120 W. Johnson Street; the closing of the Native American Center, a building on 1000 Block of Dayton St, and demands for a center by Chicano and Borricua students in the 1975-1976 semester year.
These closings were legitimized by Regent Edward E Hayle Resolution 352, April 5, l973, which supports only integrated programs of any nature being allowed or supported on any UW-System campus. It stated that “the worth of any program on any campus in the UW-System, including the propriety of ethnic centers, is whether or not such programs are priority ordered and directly supportive of the educational and academic mission of the university.”
These centers were anything but separate and segregate, they had strong social links to minority communities. The establishment of these centers were but one of the thirteen demands set forth by students of color in 1969, which demanded equal access to higher education. The result of the closing of these centers has led to the dwindling number of minorities and services we see today.
Take-over of these Centers began in l974 by a coalition of Red, Black, Brown, Yellow and White students. Paul Ginsberg, the UW power broker, afraid of another 1960′s war-at-home, set further the idea into motion conjuring up the multi-ethnic/multi-cultural scheme. The idea was and is a scam, put forth by the Dean of Students which violates students rights to organize as we see fit. We are guaranteed this right through shared governance (Chapter 36; Title VI:Educational Institutions-UW Systems); we cannot allow the University of Wisconsin Administration’s Dean of Students Office and Chancellor’s Offices to lead students of color by the hand. We demand self-determination. We must be allowed to structure and organize ourselves as student organizations.
The Multi-Cultural Council (MCC), Advanced Academic Program (AAP), Financial Aids and Admissions, the Minority Coalition (Holley Report), the “Interim” Multi-Cultural Center, Madison Plan… all fit into the same simple paradigm of people of color meeting only when the university administration consents to it.
State funding for minority/disadvantaged student programs stands at approximately 7.5 million dollars. Their failure to recruit and retain minority students on this campus is the most obvious and indicative type of racism evident to us at MEChA. We are tired of meeting with them and wasting our valuable time when they know that all these monies do is feed and further the pockets of bureaucracy.
We need Centers of Cultural Activity, yes, but not sanctioned, ordered, and ruled by the UW Administration, faculty and staff. Chicano students are dissatisfied with this process. The University Administration’s compulsion to set the path for Chicano Studies through a Program rather than a Department is a perfect example of this. It denies the Wisconsin Chicano student resolution of February 20, l982, when 450 Chicanos came together and voted that we did not want a “program” that can be cut at anytime, but a Department which is always there to protect its interest, La Raza’s interest.
We will not idly sit by and let high-priced help speak for us, and erode hard-earned gains put forth by our gente. There are many People who do not share our goals and aspirations, but education, academia as the package that is sold in the US of A for us learn from, has to speak the truth, if we are to learn from it.
We see the University as something that should function for us. Just like it functions certain assigned tasks and outputs for White’s in this Country, it must function for us too!
MEChA again reiterates its withdrawl from committees such as the Minority Coalition, the Multi-Cultural Council, and now, the Multi-Cultural Center Board, whose aim is to bring us together under the sanction and watchful eye of the UW-Administration.
MEChA instead extends an invitation and challenge to minority organizations (other than the one’s the UW Administration creates), to meet and investigate the fate of people of color on this campus without the scrutiny of the UW administration over us.
We see the need to investigate overt forms of Racism, but actions speak louder than words, and it is HERE that the UW-System has to be put on notice, that
failing to provide equal access to higher education to minorities and the poor will not be tolerated.
Higher Education cannot become a non-reality or dream–again–especially for people of color and the poor. We will no longer fight for crumbs against each other and instead formulate a real political strategy, and that must be our main objective.
A life-long member of Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan.
Daniel Carrillo Gaytan
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