It still strikes me that a group of students were willing, then and now, to fight for something: having their voices represented in the conservative, academic world that is Columbia. It also strikes me that Columbia gave in to a certain degree, agreeing to two new programs and giving students a voice in the hiring process. While Columbia goes about denying tenure to almost everyone whose interests lie outside the white male academy, these students managed to force Columbia into having classes that address the complex legacy of our country in relationship to people of color. When few traditional classes will barely mention African Americans if they mention any minorities at all, it is important to have classes forced into departments, as well as in separate programs, that address the issues that have confronted and are confronting people of color in the United States.

Columbia's academic conservatism in relation to ethnic studies reared its ugly head again a few weeks ago with the announcement of a reception for one of the two candidates for the Director of Latino Studies. In the program's fourth year of existence, this is the third search for a director, the first two directors having left for various reasons. Latino Studies is not a department, but like its sisters African American and Women's and Gender Studies, it is an interdisciplinary program of study, and thus needing a director. On the positive side, a program, because of its interdisciplinary approach, forces other departments to integrate professors and classes on Latino Studies into their curricula. On the negative side, these programs have no independent hiring abilities.

The director is really the glue that holds everything together, and the lack of a permanent director has certainly hurt the development of the program. He or she is supposed to work with students, professors, and administrators in a way that regular professors donÍt have to. Gary Okihiro, head of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity and a member of the search committee for the new director, expects a lot out of a good candidate. "It's kind of tough to try to find people who are adept specifically but also broad enough to be comparative," he says. Additionally, the director must enter Columbia tenured and deemed worthy of it by his or her specific department, a requirement that creates even more strife between students and professors. These difficulties are accentuated at the bargaining table, where a committee composed of Okihiro, three students, the Associate Dean of the College, and faculty from various traditional departments must make their decision.

Many of the students feel the administration is only interested in pacifying them, citing various administratorsÍ beliefs that there is not enough valid scholarship to make Latino and Asian American Studies strong programs. Lailan Huen, CC '03, a member of Students Promoting Empowerment and Knowledge (SPEaK), a multiethnic group that continues to fight for the growth of ethnic studies on campus, feels that the failure to find a good director demonstrates the administration's lack of interest in really supporting the program. "If they really deeply believed in the program, they would go out there and help us find really good candidates who would be amazing for the program." Tizoc Brenes, CC Í02, however, believes that while many in the administration do want Ethnic Studies to grow, they seem unwilling to change a process that has demonstrated its inability to succeed. "They have to understand that the programs for Ethnic Studies are fields that aren't traditional, and therefore we can't go about things traditionally."

Okihiro also commented that divided factions between departments and students have caused problems in finding an adequate candidate: "Student constituencies have expectations that departments might not share." According to Jenny Montoya Tansey, CC '02, one of the student members of the search committee, students want to ensure that the director is someone who knows Latino Studies and is committed to expanding the program, making it more respected both at Columbia and in the academic world at large. One would think that is an expectation departments hiring these professors would share. However, Montoya Tansey says that "With such hostile academic terrain as we have at Columbia, it's really hard to have the work of ethnic studies scholars evaluated by appropriate academic criteria in the traditional departments we have here; and we've seen that in the searches here."