Debatable Diversity

Raymond V. Padilla; Miguel Montiel

doi:10.5771/9780742576322

Summary

In this timely and thought-provoking book, the authors engage each other and the reader in an ongoing dialogue questioning the purpose and role of the contemporary university as bureaucratic, corporate, and diversified. Written as a series of conversations between the authors, two Chicano scholars at a western university, Debatable Diversity chronicles their own experiences as academic activists who struggled for decades to transform an American university system based more on entrepreneurship and the business model than on a dedication to the ideals set forth by a social awareness and support for civil rights that came out of the 1960s and early 1970s, a time when hope and faith in social change permeated college campuses. Instead, as Padilla and Montiel reveal, this commitment was never realized, and the lack of responsiveness of most American universities to the realities of shifting demographics and cultural diversity is the rule rather than the exception. Posing a challenge for all of those interested in transforming the university into a place that reflects the realities of the American cultural landscape, including growing minority populations, the challenge of maintaining a sense of humanity in the face of the information age, socioeconomic and class inequality, and the growing presence of minorities on campus, Debatable Diversity challenges readers to reexamine the purposes, goals, and functions of the American university in light of the ongoing social transformation from modernity to postmodernity. Not only do the authors offer an insider's look at the inner workings of academia, but also of academic activism, with the goal of renewal and reconfiguration of the contemporary 'multiversity.'

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Bibliographic data

Copyright year: 1998
ISBN-Print: 978-0-8476-8731-2
ISBN-Online: 978-0-7425-7632-2
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham
Language: English
Pages: 277
Product type: Book Titles

1. Table of Contents No access
2. Foreword No access
3. Preface No access
4. Acknowledgments No access
5. Series Editor's Foreword No access
1. Are we Lost? No access
2. Defining Moments No access
3. Plans, Politics, and Power No access
4. Academic Fragmentation and Gamesmanship No access
5. A Postmodernist Book on Public Policy No access
1. The Demand for Social Justice No access
2. The Racist Boundary No access
3. Idealism as Resistance No access
4. The Legacy of Las Casas No access
5. Outside of Anglo History No access
1. The Appointment of a Latino Dean No access
2. Johnson's Legacy No access
3. A Routine Search No access
4. "When the Mess Started" No access
5. A Confrontation of Wills and Politics No access
6. An Anonymous Document No access
7. The Failure of Self-Regulation No access
8. NASW was Offended No access
9. The Appeal No access
10. Rifts among the Faculty No access
11. Who Governs the University? No access
1. The Trip to Flagstaff No access
2. The Roots of our Problems No access
3. Caught in a Time Warp No access
4. Shouting Matches No access
5. It's about Jobs No access
6. Un Pinto as Mentor No access
7. A Simple Agenda No access
8. Agreement to Some Extent No access
9. Two Examples No access
10. The Imposition of will No access
11. What Happened to Dialogue? No access
12. Cosmologists, Toilets, and Fools No access
13. A Simple Strategy No access
14. Qualifying Two Potential Players No access
15. The Importance of Following up No access
16. Montiel's Lament No access
17. Montiel's Conjecture about Change No access
1. The Arizona Board of Regents' Policy on Minority Affairs No access
2. The Locus of Change No access
3. Minorities Speak No access
4. The Solutions Proposed No access
5. The Minority Critique No access
6. The Presidents' Response to the Regents No access
7. Two Key Recommendations No access
8. The Social Responsibilities of the University No access
9. The Fragmentation of the University No access
10. The Office of Minority Affairs No access
11. The Strategy of Infusion No access
12. Advice vs. Advocacy No access
13. The Lack of Political Leverage No access
14. The Complexities of University Administration No access
15. The Diffusion of Authority No access
16. The Turnover of Administrators No access
17. Career Choices vs. Policy Choices No access
18. Institutional Amnesia No access
19. The Disruptiveness of Transitions No access
20. Faculty are not Rooted in the Local Community No access
21. Developing People with Souls No access
22. The Need to Change Values No access
23. Failing the Community No access
24. Deconstructing the University's Rhetoric No access
25. Critique and Political Muscle No access
26. A Lesson Learned No access
1. The AACHE Plan for Chicano Higher Education in Arizona No access
2. Perspectives on Higher Education No access
3. Freire's Legacy No access
4. Changing Ourselves No access
5. Critiquing the Results No access
6. Romano's Legacy No access
7. Surplus Labor No access
8. The Democratization of Knowledge No access
9. Legitimizing our Knowledge No access
10. Ideas and Politics No access
11. Participation and Consensus No access
12. Critique of Affirmative Action No access
13. Elusive Success No access
14. Getting Organized No access
15. AACHE's Failure No access
16. Aversive Ethnicity No access
17. Who is Speaking for Whom? No access
18. The University's Responses No access
1. The Minority Advisory Council No access
2. The Meaning of Recommendation Twenty-five No access
3. The Rules of Engagement No access
4. An offer the University Could Refuse No access
5. The Superstructure of Black and White Relations No access
6. The Rule of Proportionality No access
7. A Difference in Political Clout No access
8. Putting a Black in Charge No access
9. Subtle Politics No access
10. It's Risky Betting on Rainbows No access
11. No Room for Whites No access
12. The Council's Accomplishments No access
13. A Workable Strategy No access
14. The University's Response No access
1. Getting People Involved No access
2. Testing the new Vice President No access
3. Testing Ourselves No access
4. A Recalcitrant President No access
5. Critique of Chicano Studies No access
6. Implementing Strategy No access
7. Difficulties with Tenure No access
8. Turning Liabilities into Advantages No access
9. No Support No access
10. Forming a Technical Team No access
11. The Noxious in the Innocuous No access
12. Intellectual Displaying No access
13. No Room at the Inn No access
14. Horse Trading in the Legislature No access
15. Avoiding Little Mistakes No access
16. Struggling with Ourselves No access
17. Avoiding a Sham Program No access
18. Extraordinary Self-Consciousness No access
19. Feet to the Fire No access
20. Faculty Criticisms No access
21. Extravagant use of Time No access
22. The Dog that Caught the Volkswagen No access
23. Doing Things Sideways No access
24. A License to Root Around No access
25. Tiny Footholds of Power No access
26. Finding a Director No access
27. Chicanos had Bailed out No access
28. Padilla's Candidacy No access
29. Avoiding the Dean's Trap No access
1. Creating an Intellectual Space No access
2. Quality and Presence No access
3. Reviving the Community of Scholars No access
4. The Role of Community Influentials No access
5. The Role of Campus Administrators No access
6. The Advantages of Ambiguity No access
7. The Influence of College Deans No access
8. The Influence of Vice Presidents No access
9. The Power to Leverage No access
10. Not a Community of Scholars No access
11. The Gender Issue No access
12. The Importance of Reciprocity No access
13. The Lack of Civility No access
14. The Importance of Chicana Leadership No access
15. Future Work No access
1. The Ineffectiveness of Individual Action No access
2. Knowledge as Power No access
3. The Reconstitution of Chicano Knowledge No access
4. The Power to Communicate No access
5. Communicating through Action No access
6. A Legacy of Hierarchy No access
7. The Effectiveness of Volunteer Groups No access
8. The Limits of Confrontation No access
9. The Politics of Justification No access
10. Shaping a Group Agenda No access
11. The Development of Leadership No access
12. The Dilemma of Leadership No access
13. Chaos and the Uncontrollable No access
14. Revising the Action Plan No access
15. The Importance of Courage and Responsibility No access
1. Reader Comments No access
2. Coda: On Social Change No access
Glossary No access Pages 257 - 258
References No access Pages 259 - 264
Index No access Pages 265 - 270
About the Authors No access Pages 271 - 277