Dismissals spark protests at Texas-Arlington - advisory council of Texas-Arlington University

Black Issues in Higher Education, Sept 19, 1996 by Roberto Rodriguez

The firing last month of the director and

staff of the University of Texas at

Arlington's Center for Mexican-American

Studies continues to draw a barrage of protests

front campus and community activists.

In the latest salvo, president Robert Witt

disbanded the center's community advisory

council. After a series of attempts to bring the

president and the council together had failed,

they finally met in a closed door session. At the

conclusion of the meeting, the president

terminated the council.

Witt defended his actions, saying the firings

were proper and the dismissal of the council was

based on their insistence that Jose Angel

Gutierrez, the former director

of the center, be reinstated.

According to Witt, the firing of Gutierrez

was due to fiscal mismanagement and poor

leadership, as evidenced by a money-losing

Tejano concert held in the spring. Although

student and community activists say the

financial issue is a

pretext for eliminating the center. Witt says,

Under the circumstances. the dismissal of Dr.

Gutierrez was appropriate. The resources of the

center were not properly managed."

Gutierrez claims, "There is no

mismanagement." He accuses the administration

of being anti-Mexican and is considering legal

action because the institution has is no appeals

process.

In addition to the Gutierrez firing, the

center's two other employees -- Diana

Flores, the program

coordinator, and Maria de Leon,

the secretary -- were also

dismissed. According to Witt, they

were dismissed because too much

of the center's money was going

toward salaries and because they

partook in the irregularities

attributed to Gutierrez, such as

entering into improper contracts

with vendors and musicians.

Flores says they were

Unfamiliar with university

procedures, but she cites a memo

from the university dated

December 12, 1995, that other

Texas-Arlington employees have

done likewise "without

getting fired."

Last year's budget (as well

as this year's) was $125,000

with personnel expenses

amounting to $64,000. As a

result of a Tejano symposium

and concert, administrators say the

center lost $26,000 and

ended the year with a $10,000

deficit.

Witt has appointed a

temporary director -- Guisette Salazar, a regional

planner in the school of Urban and

Public Affairs -- and will soon be

advertising nationwide for a permanent

replacement. Additionally, a part time

employees will he assigned to handle

office duties. With money saved from

the reorganization, the center will he able

to be more broad-based. as opposed to

simply focusing on two or three areas,

Witt says.

Gutierrez. who came to prominence

nationally as the founder of the "La Raza

Unida Party" in the 1960s, doesn't buy

the administration's rationale for firing

him. calling it a subterfuge. He notes that

the center, which was created in 1994,

received its initial university-provided

funding in 1995 and does not have a

deficit. The center has two bank

accounts, according to Gutierrez. The

second one, which Gutierrez created four

years ago, is money donated from

community supporters.

"This [privately funded account] is

the account that was used for the

concert." Gutierrez explained. "Not one

cent of taxpayer's money was used" and

the account actually has a positive

balance, he said.

He says that even if fiscal reasons were the

rationale for his firing, lie can show that there

were no financial irregularities at the center. But

the acids that even if there had been irregularities,

that is no reason for the firing of the three. He

feels that if there was a problem, lie should have

been advised that there was something wrong.

Witt maintains that Gutierrez had been

warned repeatedly by several administrators of

his misdeeds and that his dismissal came as no

surprise. "He was not responsive. We had no

alternative."

Witt agreed that fiscal mismanagement is

not enough of a reason to fire someone -- even

though the center exposed the university to

financial risk -- "but it is if YOU Couple that with

unresponsiveness."

Gutierrez denies that lie was ever warned of

any wrongdoing by anyone. He says that lie and

many Mexican-American volunteers struggled

for four years to raise money for the center,

After reviewing the mission of various Mexican-American

centers around the country, Gutierrez

decided the mission of the Texas-Arlington

center would focus on Mexican-American

biographies and communication.

Last spring as part of its mission, the center

hosted a symposium on Tejano Music and an

outdoor concert, explained Gutierrez. Due to

hail and rain, attendance was poor and the result,

he contends, was his firing. But he says that the concert is simply the

public reason. The real reason, he says, is that Texas-Arlington

is hostile to Mexican Americans and is guilty of

"101 years of intentional neglect."

Most ethnic studies centers take two to three years to get

off the ground, says Gutierrez. "In our case, we were audited in

10 months.

"In the last 101 years, never has

any white person gone out on the limb

for minorities. People had to get sued,

people had to go on hunger strikes [to

receive anything]," said Gutierrez.

While Witt acknowledges that