Dionicio Valdés came to MSU to fulfill his dream of creating a Chicano and Latino studies program.
This past fall, three years of work paid off when administrators created the nation's second Chicano and Latino studies graduate program.
Months later, however, Valdés said he is unsure whether he can recruit and retain students because the university failed to deliver the program's budget on time.
Without a budget, Valdés doesn't know how much money he has to pay for teaching assistantships — a financial incentive for graduate students to join the program.
"We have a saying (in Spanish), 'La panza es primero,'" said Valdés, a program director. "It can be roughly translated as the belly comes first.
"Students are hungry for knowledge, but they also have to feed their belly so they can survive, pay their bills, have housing, pay for their books and pay for tuition."
University administrators said there always has been funding for the program, even though it was in the form of soft money, not a normal budget.
"There was never any interruption of funds flowing to the program or to the faculty," said June Youatt, a senior associate provost. "I think that's a critical point — that whether or not they were in one account or the other, there was never any interruption of service."
Youatt said all program budgets for this school year were delayed because of uncertainties regarding state appropriations. Valdés said he did not see a budget until the end of January.
Since plans to create the program were first OK'd in March 2005, faculty, students and community members said they have struggled to obtain a solid budget.
Last Friday, about 50 people — including undergraduate and graduate students, staff, and local Chicano and Latino families — met with Marietta Baba, the dean of the College of Social Science, and other administrators to voice their concerns.
"We're not asking for money; that's not what we're going in there for," said Gabriel Ramirez, a jazz studies sophomore in MSU's undergraduate Chicano and Latino studies program.
"We want our budget sheet to be on time, and we want to know what funds we have to spend."
At the meeting, Baba said she has made the program's budget a high priority. But she said she can't control whether the provost approves or rejects it.
"My heart is the same as your heart and I understand," Baba said, with her hand over her heart. "And I will fight until the program is funded."
Ramirez said he doesn't know whether to believe Baba's promises because the administration has made promises to the program before.
"A lot of promises are always made, but the majority of them are never kept," he said. "The main things we fight for are never done for us."
Six students from MSU and other universities have applied to enter the program for the fall, said Ernesto Mireles, program coordinator for the Chicano and Latino Fellows Program.
MSU offers some Chicano and Latino studies classes at the graduate level, but no students currently are enrolled in the program.
The only other university to have a Chicano and Latino studies program at the graduate level is the University of California at Santa Barbara.
Staff writer Sarah Harbison contributed to this report. Lindsay Machak can be reached at machakli@msu.edu.
