Back for Pyne Prize luncheon, Chicanos find ‘changed’ campus (March 1, 1976)

Back for Pyne Prize luncheon, Chicanos find ‘changed’ campus

By Tom Streithorst

March 1, 1976

On the day that Sonia M. Sotomayor ’76 became the first Latino student ever to win the Pyne Prize, several Chicano alumni returned to Princeton and found it more attuned to Chicano problems than it had been when they were students.

Many problems still remain in the relations between the Chicano community and the university, said L. Manuel Garcia ’73, but “things are really positive compared to when we were here. Things were bleak then,” he added.

One of Garcia’s main complaints against the university is the continued lack of Chicanos on the faculty.

Emerging community

He feels, however, that a Chicano community has emerged on campus as the number of Chicano students has increased.

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The only Chicano in the class of ’73, Garcia said he had not experienced discrimination but that he had felt alienated from the rest of the university community.

“I had tough times here but those difficulties were not a function of being a Chicano but rather a function of being from a different culture,” he said.

Joseph B. Schubert ’74, one of three Chicanos admitted in his class but the only one to complete all four years, concurred with him. “What we had to content with was sheer ignorance.”

Difficult relations

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He asserted that since whites are used to dealing with other whites, it is difficult for them to interrelate with Chicanos. “Princeton still has not come to grips with diversity,” he maintained.

Schubert asserted that whites are incorrect in assuming that since Chicanos stick together, they are anti-white. They associate with each other mainly because they come from the same culture and thus have more in common with each other than they do with whites, he explained.

Garcia and Schubert said they are not satisfied with the university’s argument that there is only a small pool of qualified Chicanos for faculty positions.

Yale has three “excellent” Chicano professors, they pointed out.

Garcia, who is presently seeking a Ph.D. at the Colegio de Mexicon, said he has encountered many qualified Chicanos.

Press for change

The two alumni suggested that the deeper reasons Princeton has not hired Chicano professors are bureaucratic inertia, fear of creating a precedent and a lack of concern. To overcome these obstacles, Garcia advised Chicano students to press hard for change.

Garcia cited the hiring of former Assistant Dean of Student Affairs Luis Garcia, Princeton's first Latino administrator, as an example of the success of pressure tactics.

To force Princeton to hire at least one Latino, Puerto Rican students filed a suit with the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, asserting that Princeton was ignoring its Affirmative Action responsibilities. Garcia maintained that Princeton's subsequent hiring of the Puerto Rican dean was influenced by the suit.

Pleased with Princeton

Yet in all, Garcia and Schubert said they were pleased with Princeton. They called its academics excellent and said it taught them how to think analytically and write clearly, talents essential outside of Princeton.

Schubert, who is currently enrolled in Yale Law School, said that Princeton’s prestige has been useful but what he learned was much more important. “The education benefits of the institution are incalculable,” he [said.]