LETTER: Letting Go

Recently, Penn students and faculty were dealt yet another severe blow as Professor Dain Borges, specializing in Latin American and Caribbean history, was denied tenure for the second and final time. The implications of this decision are far-reaching and have serious and detrimental ramifications for the entire Penn community. First, the History department will suffer a great loss next year as its only full-time Latino staff member will be forced to leave his position. Beginning next year, the History department will only be able to offer two courses with a concentration in Latin America: two lower division survey courses, History 70 and History 71. As a result, the department will effectively be reduced to offering history of the United States, Europe and the Middle and Far East while blatantly neglecting the study of Latin America and the Caribbean. This move is made even more frustrating in light of the fact that in order to expand the Latin American course offerings, which the administration claims it wants to do, it must hire more faculty. Instead of hiring faculty, however, we are silently allowing our valuable professors to go, leaving a dearth in both the History department and in the larger College of Arts and Sciences. How is Penn to attract more Latino faculty when it demonstrates that it is unwilling to grant tenure to qualified professors? The recently approved Latin American Studies minor is now in jeopardy. Those who seek the minor are now forced to scramble for courses and are faced with the possibility that their hopes -- which incidentally are costing them $25,000 a year -- may not be realized. The decision also robs the Penn community of a valuable role model. For many Latinos especially, Professor Borges' presence inspires and encourages the pursuit of post secondary education in academia. As we see him leave, however, we are forced to question the efficacy of pursuing an academic career. The long term effect of this decision, then, is to decrease an already pathetically small number of Latino scholars. Without scholars there can be no faculty, and without faculty the study of Latin America is impossible. Finally, and perhaps most interesting, is the fact that by denying Dain Borges tenure, the Penn administration has highlighted a fundamental contradiction in its rhetoric. The 1991-92 Admissions Catalog professes that at Penn, "the four-year undergraduate program in the College of Arts and Sciences is designed to ensure a broad-based liberal arts education, a combination of breadth of study provided by the General Requirement and the choice of free electives, and depth of study in the selection of a major." This lofty claim, however, remains to be realized as both breadth and depth are precluded by the dearth in Latin American related course offerings, and now in faculty. How can one claim to be intellectually and socially well-rounded when a significant culture is excluded among the student body, the faculty and within the curriculum? PAMELA URUETA Co-founder and member The Latino Coalition College '93

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