Debatable Diversity: Critical Dialogues on Change in American Universities

Written as a series of conversations between the authorstwo Chicano scholars at a western state university - Debatable Diversity chronicles their experiences as academic activists. Raymond V. Padilla and Miguel Montiel struggled for decades to transform an American university system based more on entrepreneurship and the business model than on a dedication to the ideals set forth by a social awareness and support for civil rights that came out of the 1960s and early 1970s, a time when hope and faith in social change permeated college campuses. As the authors reveal, however, this commitment was never realized, and the lack of responsiveness of most American universities to the realities of shifting demographics and cultural diversity is the rule rather than the exception. Debatable Diversity challenges readers to reexamine the purposes, goals, and functions of the American university in light of the ongoing social transformation from modernity to post-modernity. The authors offer an insider's look at the inner workings of academic and especially academic activism, with the goal of renewal and reconfiguration of the contemporary multiversity.