The University of Rochester in New York is set to start offering students a new “Latin American, Caribbean, & Latinx Studies (LACX)” major.
The new major was officially approved by university officials in October, reported the school student paper Campus Times.
The major was first proposed in an October 2022 petition by then-student Elvis Vasquez.
The LACX major’s proposal states: “In requiring students to take courses across disciplines, LACX recognizes that complicated challenges and diverse societies require complex solutions and a holistic, rather than singular, approach. The requirement to complete intermediate Spanish or Portuguese provides students with the necessary language skills to engage with many LACX societies.”
“It introduces students to a wide range of methodologies and spans the region’s geographic diversity, including both mainland Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Latinx diaspora population in the United States. As the major’s core courses and structure encourages students to integrate knowledge across disciplines, LACX cultivates creative thinking that will leave majors poised to imagine and enact effective change in careers and research ranging from public health and medicine to diplomacy, sustainability, education, and social justice,” it continues.
The proposal also claims that “63 million people or 20% of the population” in America “identifies as Latinx.”
Many Hispanic Americans, however, dislike being described by the term “Latinx” and do not want to identify as such. A Gallup report published on Jan. 7, 2022, for example, found that 23 percent of Hispanic Americans prefer to identify as “Hispanic,” 15 percent as “Latino,” 57 percent said it “does not matter,” and only 4 percent said they identify as “Latinx.”
One critic said the term is “supposed to be inclusive but erases a crucial part of Latin American identity and language.”
[RELATED: UC San Diego hosts ‘Black Graduation,’ ‘Xicanx/Latinx Graduation’]
Other universities also have programs dedicated to “Latinx” students.
California State University, Fullerton, for example, announced on Oct. 14 that it was receiving $3 million from the Department of Education to fund its initiative: “ELEVAR: Excelencia for Latinx: Engagement, Validation, Academics Resources.”
Campus Reform has reached out to the University of Rochester for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
This article was originally published at campusreform.org
