Center for Latino and Latin American Studies
Program Review Summary of Actions: December 15, 2010
Mission
The Center for Latino and Latin American Studies (CLLAS) combines an interdisciplinary
academic program with a community partnership initiative to engage CWU and the surrounding
community in an intensive study of Latino and Latin American peoples and cultures. Based
primarily in the humanities, the academic program fuses the usually separate fields of Latino
Studies and Latin American Studies in flexible ways that respect student interests and needs. By
emphasizing student support, service learning, and community-based research, the academic
program also enhances a community partnership initiative to solidify and expand the relationship
between CWU and the surrounding community, especially Washington State’s booming Latino
populations. Ultimately, the Center seeks to create a physical and intellectual space within
which the University community and community members can find mutual understanding,
intellectual stimulation, and personal and professional enrichment.
Program Review
The Latino and Latin American Studies (LLAS) program went through its first program review
in 2008-2009. The program review was conducted by John L. Rector of Western Oregon
University and facilitated by the LLAS Director at that time, Michael Ervin. Ervin served as
LLAS Director through Winter 2010, at which time he left CWU to pursue other professional
opportunities. Ervin’s position was filled by Co-Directors, Chris Schedler (responsible for
Academic Programs) and Stella Moreno (responsible for Community Initiatives). However,
Schedler and Moreno were off-campus for the remainder of the academic year and did not return
to campus to assume their duties as Co-Directors until Fall 2010.
Hence the LLAS Program and the Center for Latino & Latin American Studies were without a
dedicated director between the end of Winter 2010 and Fall 2010. During this period, Dean Marji
Morgan assumed responsibilities for academic program matters, and Stefanie Wickstrom was
hired to coordinate the primary community initiative for the year—Mexico 1810-1910-2010—a
program offered in conjunction with the Secretariat of Culture of Michoacán (SECUM). See
Wickstrom’s attached report on her activities on behalf of CLLAS.
Summary of Actions
This 1-Year Summary of Actions covers the academic year 2009-2010 and up to the present. It
addresses the five (5) areas of recommendations from the Program Review:
1. Visibility
Prospective students need to know about the LLAS program. While efforts were begun
last year to redesign the current out-dated program website, the new design was never
implemented and the student web-developer assigned to the task did not complete her
assignment and has since left the University. Hence, it falls to the new Co-Directors to
renew those efforts. Schedler will undertake the task to redesign the website and also
make it more user-friendly for maintenance and updating by the Co-Directors and other
program faculty. By using a forms-based web publishing tool, such as WordPress, we
should be able to eliminate the need to hire web developers, streamline the process of
making updates, and allow even faculty without web development experience to
contribute to the website.
Schedler has created a handout that describes the LLAS minor and the list of approved
courses with the goal of creating a glossy brochure for the program. We will also develop
a logo and tagline for the program that can be used on the brochure, website, recruitment
materials, and posters for events that are sponsored by the Center. Schedler developed a
schedule of all the approved courses offered in Fall and Winter with the goal of having a
full-year (and eventually 2-year) schedule of courses to provide to students. This will take
coordination with multiple Chairs in the departments whose courses serve LLAS. The
program description and course schedule were sent to all the University Academic
Advisors, CAMP advisors, departmental advisors, and LLAS program faculty. Once we
have brochures, they will likewise be distributed through these channels to reach
prospective students.
Prior to the beginning of Fall quarter, Schedler attended a 2-day retreat on Bainbridge
Island with students in the Casa Latina living-learning community in order to help
develop the students’ community and leadership skills. Schedler, Moreno, and Gilberto
Garcia serve as faculty advisors to Casa Latina and have participated in a number of their
activities this past quarter. Casa Latina students are enrolled in the LLAS 102
Introduction course taught by Garcia. Schedler presented information about the LLAS
program at one of the class sessions. Garcia serves as faculty advisor for MEChA, and
Schedler has attended their student meetings in order to coordinate efforts on activities
that involve LLAS and Latino/a student groups on campus. One result was two days of
activities to celebrate Dia De Los Muertos, with events hosted by Casa Latina, MEChA,
and Diversity Education Center.
2. Grants
In 2007, Ervin submitted an NEH Challenge Grant proposal on behalf of CLLAS, but he
was not awarded a grant. Feedback provided by the NEH reviewers suggested that a
future proposal to support the work of an interdisciplinary program and Center should not
be submitted by a single person. Hence, a team of program faculty and grant development
staff was put together to revise and resubmit the grant. Unfortunately, those efforts also
ended with Ervin’s departure.
The current Co-Directors would like time to develop more collaborative efforts with the
program faculty and a vision for the future direction of the program and Center before
resubmitting an external grant proposal that is developed as a team. Other possible
sources of external funding include the NEH Digital Humanities Grants for such work as
digitizing oral histories of local Latino/a communities. Schedler has been involved in
discussions with Dean Morgan and other interested CAH faculty to develop such digital
humanities projects.
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We are pursuing internal grant funding to develop the LLAS minor as an online degree
that could be offered over the summers. Funding to support individual faculty in
developing their courses for online delivery and to support the program in offering the
courses over the summer is available through Academic Affairs and Continuing
Education. Schedler will develop the LLAS 102 Introduction class as an online course to
be offered first in Winter 2011. He has previously developed two other online courses on
“Chicano Film” and “Latin American Literature” that are approved as LLAS elective
courses. As a University Faculty Fellow for Online Learning, Schedler will work with
other interested LLAS program faculty to help them put their courses online. Moreno has
expressed interest in offering her “Hispanic Cinema” course online every other summer.
Offering the LLAS minor as an online degree program that could be completed during
the summers should help us recruit more students into the minor, both students enrolled
on the Ellensburg campus, who could complete the minor while working elsewhere,
during the summer, and also place-bound students at the University Centers, who could
complete the program online without having to travel to the Ellensburg campus.
3. Staffing
Faculty dedicated to the LLAS program are necessary to regularly offer courses and to
grow the program. Schedler and Nelson Pichardo served as the LLAS representatives on
the Personnel Committee reviewing Garcia’s reappointment since Garcia was hired with
a dual appointment in LLAS and Political Science. It is imperative that Garcia’s work in
teaching, scholarship, and service to both the LLAS program and his home department be
recognized and rewarded through the reappointment and tenure/promotion process, and
we will continue to make sure that it is. Garcia was the first of what we hope will be other
hires with dedicated service to the LLAS program. When new faculty hires are being
made in our affiliate departments, we will work with the departments to find faculty who
could contribute to the LLAS program.
We are also working to bring additional faculty from other departments into the LLAS
program so that we can add more approved courses to our program offerings. As such,
Schedler has made contact with faculty in Law & Justice, Theater Arts, and Language,
Literacy, & Special Education about adding their courses to the LLAS program. We will
also initiate a faculty discussion group at which faculty will present their work-inprogress. Such work-in-progress might involve teaching, scholarship, or service related to
Latino & Latin American Studies in order to encourage participation from both program
and affiliate faculty.
4. Center & Community
The Center for Latino & Latin American Studies requires a physical space on campus for
visibility, recruitment, and to build community among students and faculty, as well as
with Latino/a constituencies in Ellensburg and Central Washington region. The CoDirectors and program faculty has been vocal with members of the administration about
the need for such physical space. Schedler, Moreno, and Garcia met last quarter with
Kandee Cleary, University Inclusivity Officer, to discuss space needs. Cleary then
submitted a memorandum to Bill Vertrees requesting temporary space for CLLAS. The
request was made for temporary space in Hertz Hall because of its central location and to
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coordinate efforts with CAMP, Bridges, and other student services located there.
Additionally, Cleary requested the long-term development of a Multicultural Center on
campus to house all the multicultural programs and underrepresented student groups on
campus. We will continue to work on the development of such a long-term space for the
Center for Latino & Latin American Studies.
As noted, Wickstrom’s efforts on behalf of CLLAS to coordinate the Mexico 1810-19102010 program in conjunction with SECUM are outlined in her attached report. Events for
the program were presented in both Ellensburg and Yakima, and Wickstrom developed a
database of community contacts in both locations that will be invaluable for
communication about future events, coordination of future programs, and future fundraising.
As Co-Director of Community Initiatives, Moreno has to been adding to the community
contacts database by making connections with Latino/a professional organizations in
Yakima. She is coordinating an international film series with Allied Arts of Yakima,
which will include films related to Latino & Latin American Studies. Moreno and
Schedler are coordinating activities surrounding a presentation by Enrique Morones on
the Border and immigration issues as part of the Performing Arts & Speaker Series in
January. Events with Mr. Morones include a lunch with LLAS faculty, a dialogue with
LLAS and Latino/a students, and a reception with Latino/a community members prior to
his presentation. Other events that the Center for Latino & Latin American Studies will
help sponsor include, an art exhibition by Consuelo Soto-Murphy at Gallery One in
February, campus presentations by Martín Valadez (Vice President for Diversity &
Outreach at Columbia Basin College) in May, and activities for Cinco de Mayo.
Garcia was instrumental in hosting the National Association for Chicana and Chicano
Studies conference at CWU in October 2009. Sponsorship of the conference helped
establish the Center’s role in fostering scholarship related to Latino/a communities in the
Northwest. Garcia also helped to initiate the CWU Latina/o Alumni Association. Last
quarter, the Association hosted the first annual welcome back reception for Latino/a
students, and they have also been coordinating a membership drive and donations for
Latino/a student scholarships. The Center has been working with the Latina/o Alumni
Association to advertise their activities and has pledged support for their future events. In
addition, the Center will work with the Association and MEChA to host a graduation
party for Latino/a students in the Spring.
5. International Links
Moreno is the primary point of contact with SECUM, and she traveled with Dean
Morgan to Michoacán this Fall to meet with the Secretary of Culture to review last year’s
Mexico 1810-1910-2010 program and plan for future events. One of the outcomes was to
establish a faculty exchange program for CWU faculty to travel to Michoacán and
participants from Mexico to be in residence at CWU.
The LLAS program and affiliate faculty continue to forge international linkages through
study abroad programs, research, and publications. For example, Terry McCain in the
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Language, Literacy, & Special Education department will be leading a student group to
Honduras next Summer to teach English as a Second Language.
Finally, the Co-Directors would like to acknowledge the continued support of Dean Marji
Morgan and our program faculty and affiliate faculty, for their contributions to the work of the
Center for Latino & Latin American Studies.
Christopher Schedler, Co-Director (Academic Programs)
Stella Moreno, Co-Director (Community Initiatives)
Center for Latino & Latin American Studies
Program Faculty
Tracy Andrews, Anthropology
Stephanie Ballenger, History
Loran Cutsinger, Anthropology
Gilberto García, Political Science
Alejandro Lee, Spanish
Jennifer Lipton, Geography
Eric Mayer, Spanish
Stella Moreno, Spanish
Nelson Pichardo, Sociology
Craig Revels, Geography
Chris Schedler, English
Affiliate Faculty
Dan Beck, Biology
Lois Breedlove, Communication
Kris Ernest, Biology
Elise Forier, Theater
Phil Garrison, English
Raymond Hall, Africana and Black Studies
Brenda Hubbard, Theater
Nathalie Kasselis-Smith, Spanish
Keith Lewis, Art
Terrence McCain, Language, Literacy & Special Ed
Rodrigo Murataya, Law & Justice
Cristina Santmaria-Graff, Language, Literacy & Special Ed
Stefanie Wickstrom, Political Science
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