In response to the efforts of students and faculty to make Latino Studies a permanent part of the Latin American and Caribbean Studies program, the College will be offering a tenure track Latino Studies position.
"We're going for a national search. We are sending advertisements to the Chronicle of Higher Education and other professional journals saying that Dartmouth is looking for a Latino Studies professor," Chair of Latin American and Caribbean Studies Department Marysa Navarro said.
The professor will be appointed to both LACS and another social sciences department.
The professor will teach two courses in Latino Studies, which will be housed under LACS and another two courses that will be cross-listed with another department, Navarro said.
"I was delighted with the exciting decision and was very pleased that the institution has responded positively," she said. "A group of students have been working very hard to make this appointment possible."
Last term the Student Assembly, working closely with La Alianza Latina, passed a resolution to make Latino Studies a permanent fixture in the College's curriculum.
It was one of the highlights of the term, said Shakari Cameron '96, the Assembly's committee head of academic affairs.
Three years ago, Ana Henderson '94 and a group of students, met with administrators to discuss including Latino courses in the curriculum. As a result, the College chose visiting Mellon Professor Brenda Bright to teach four Latino courses.
Mellon professors are only funded to teach for two years, and Bright's last term is scheduled for spring 1996.
"It wasn't until spring of 1995 that we started pushing for the Latino courses to become permanent," Henderson said.
Limited resources and special interest groups were the two major factors preventing administrators from approving the petition, she said.
"I'm thrilled by the news. The administrators have always been very receptive. Even when they had nothing new to tell me, they still sat down and talked to me," Henderson said.
Bright said, "The more we know about the culture and politics of the United States, the better off we are. Latinos are the second largest minority group in the United States right now and by the year 2000, they will be the largest."
"Studying the Latino experience will help us better understand the reality of the American experience then most people are equipped now," she said.
Bright added, "People know very little of immigration and the structure of the labor market."
According to Associate Dean of Faculty George Wolford, Bright will be considered for the Latino Studies position.
Bright said she was very happy and enthusiastic about the creation of the Latino Studies position. She said she liked teaching at Dartmouth and would consider staying on.
Wolford and Navarro said they would like to see LACS renamed Latino, Latin American and Caribbean Studies.
