access to higher education changes in the curriculum the recruitment of more professors of color and the creation of ethnic studies programs These programs were the beginning of multicultural cur riculum reform in higher education From their origins in California eth nic studies programs and departments have survived and proliferated through out the United States After serious cut backs during the budgetary crises of the 1970s and 1980s they are back bigger and stronger than ever Ethnic studies programs have been revitalized reor ganized and reconceptualized Indeed they are increasingly becoming institu tionalized The field of ethnic studies has produced a prodigious amount of new scholarship much of which is good and innovative However as is true in all dis ciplines some of the work is weak The perspectives of ethnic studies are intend ed not only to increase our knowledge base but eventually to transform the dis ciplines Their influence is being widely felt and hotly debated Today there are more than 700 eth nic studies programs and departments in the United States They are represent ed by five established professional associ ations the National Council of Black Studies the National Association of Chi cano Studies the Asian American Studies Association the American Indian Studies Association and the National Association of Ethnic Studies The Association of Puerto Rican Studies was formed in 1992 A disproportionate number of ethnic studies programs are located in public colleges and universities because these institutions are more susceptible to pub riuata cohools cific programs 3 The Department of American Eth nic Studies at the University of Wash ington Seattle was created in 1985 by bringing together programs in African American Asian American and Chicano studies 4 The Center for Studies of Ethnicity and Race in America at the University of Colorado Boulder was created in 1987 by consolidating existing programs in black studies and Chicano studies and adding new programs in Asian American and American Indian studies Aside from the West Bowling Green State University in Ohio has one of the oldest ethnic studies departments which was founded in 1979 During the decades in which ethnic studies programs were established and grew strong American society under went dramatic changes that continue to this day The civil rights movement might have removed the last vestiges of legal apartheid in the United States However other ways have been invented to deny equal opportunity to the historically mar ginalized communities of color In the 25 years since the issuance of the Kerner Commission Report which spoke of two Americas one rich one poor one white one black the gulf that divides the nation has grown wider than ever Today 1 of the population of the U S has gained control of more of the na tion s wealth than the bottom 90 This situation parallels the stark and painful inequality in much of the Third World Significant demographic changes have also taken place in the United States in the last 25 years Since 1965 when U S immigration laws eliminated the national origins quotas that favored Europeans Page 3 of 6 coming colored and increasingly more terns the U S population is rapidly be diverse language music art literature and other in race ethnicity religion cultural expressions In fact with more than half of its population already high ly diversified California provides a glimpse of the nation s future It will be an oxymoronic majority minority state by 2050 The relatively high birthrate of minority Americans as well as their low er age distribution will mean that ever increasing numbers of people of color will fill our classrooms and enter our work force In order to bring about a truly pluralis tic democracy our education system at all levels not only must reflect the nation s diversity in its student body faculty and curriculum but also must seek to achieve comparable educational outcomes for all groups in society The education reforms known collectively as multiculturalism one example of which is the integra tion of ethnic studies into the college cur riculum I have as major goals the es tablishment of democratic pluralism and the achievement of educational equity THE NATURE OF ETHNIC STUDIES What is ethnic studies First the field is distinct from global or internation al studies particularly those program known generally as area studies wit which ethnic studies is often compare and confused Area studies program arose out of American imperialism in the Third World and bear names such a African studies Asian studies and Lat in American studies These programm were designed to focus on U S Thir World relations and to train specialist