UCLA has named its department of Chicana and Chicano studies after the late labor leader César E. Chávez.

The department, established in 2004, is the successor unit to the César E. Chávez Center for Interdisciplinary Instruction in Chicana and Chicano Studies, which was approved by the University of California Regents in 1993. The department and the center, which had the same faculty chair, have now merged into a single entity.

"We are pleased that UCLA's first department naming is in honor of someone who did so much on behalf of others and was a pivotal figure in the history of California," said UCLA Acting Chancellor Norman Abrams. "Mr. Chávez has been rightly called 'a common man with an uncommon vision.' "

UC system guidelines state that an academic department can be named for an individual when he or she "has contributed in truly exceptional ways to the welfare of the institution or achieved such unique distinction as to warrant recognition."

Chávez was a pivotal figure in American history. For more than three decades, he led the first successful farmworkers union in the nation's history, achieving many rights and protections for hundreds of thousands of workers. He committed his life to social justice and nonviolence.

The department offers Chicano studies courses to undergraduates and promotes critical thinking about such issues as gender, sexuality, social action, language, race and ethnicity.

UCLA established an interdepartmental program in Chicano studies in 1973. In 1993, interest on campus in expanding the program, along with student involvement and a hunger strike, led the university to create a new organization - a center for interdisciplinary instruction - that could support the growth of Chicano studies as an academic field

About UCLA
UCLA is California's largest university, with an enrollment of nearly 37,000 undergraduate and graduate students. The UCLA College of Letters and Science and the university's 11 professional schools feature renowned faculty and offer more than 300 degree programs and majors. UCLA is a national and international leader in the breadth and quality of its academic, research, health care, cultural, continuing education and athletic programs. Four alumni and five faculty have been awarded the Nobel Prize.

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