Colegio Cesar Chavez - Evolution

Evolution

For many members of the Colegio community, the most memorable campus event occurred on May 16, 1974, when Cesar Chavez paid his first visit to the college.... More than 600 people, mostly Mexican Americans, crowded into Guadalupe Hall to see and hear Chavez.... Chavez devoted most of his speech to the union’s fight with the growers, making his case for the boycott. But he also talked about Colegio, confessing that, if someone had told him five years earlier that Mexican Americans would have established their own college in Oregon, he ‘would have thought they were crazy.’ ‘Who knows?’ he added. ‘Maybe tomorrow there will be mariachi music in the White House.’

Colegio Cesar Chavez evolved from various other collegial institutions that had existed in Mount Angel, Oregon for nearly a century. In 1888, the Catholic Order of the Benedictine Sisters founded Mont. Angel Academy. The Academy was originally a female charter academy but later evolved into a normal school in 1897 to train women for careers in education. In 1947, Mt. Angel Normal School was renamed Mt. Angel Women's College and, with accreditation from the Northwest Accrediting Association, it granted a Bachelor of Science degree in elementary education. In 1957, Mt. Angel Women's College became coeducational and was renamed Mt. Angel College.

By 1966 Mt. Angel College was facing financial problems for which it received two federal loans which it used to expand the campus. Within the next seven year Mt. Angel College found itself burdened by a one million dollar debt and low student enrollment. In 1977, Ernesto Lopez became Dean of Students of Mt. Angel College and Sonny Montes became Director of Ethnic Affairs and minority recruiter. By 1972, Mt. Angel College had a student body of only 250, only 37 of whom were of Mexican American descent.

Citing the Mt. Angel College's financial instability and low enrollment, the Northwest Association of Schools and Colleges withdrew the college's accreditation. In light of such bleak signs, most students and staff left the college. Sonny Montes, Ernesto Lopez, and four others decided to attempt to salvage the college by redirecting its focus. On December 12, 1973, Mt. Angel College was renamed Colegio Cesar Chavez. In 1975, Colegio was granted accreditation candidacy from the same association that had withdrawn Mt. Angel College's accreditation. Colegio aimed to create a four-year college completely under the control of a staff chiefly of Mexican American, or Chicano, descent. Colegio was also structured on an experimental educational model known as a "college without walls" program.

Previous to settling on the name "Colegio Cesar Chavez", staff had considered three other names for the college: "Colegio Che Guevara", "Colegio Ho Chi Minh", and "Colegio Virgen de Guadalupe". César Chávez's name was chosen because he was one of the key figures in the Chicano movement, often organizing boycotts and protests for farm workers in California and eventually throughout the entire Pacific Northwest. The majority of Mexican Americans in the Pacific Northwest had migrated to the region during the World War II era in search of work as farm laborers.

"The students were able to get Cesar Chavez's help in renegotiating the debt with HUD. The Chicano militants put together a staff and recruited students. Together, they were making ends meet and had gotten past the first steps toward full accreditation. As a volunteer, I helped them in obtaining a Dean's Grant for bilingual education. I also began an international education course of study with Mexico at the Colegio." - Jose Angel Gutierrez