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Cecilia Burciaga

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Cecilia Preciado de Burciaga (May 17, 1945- March 25, 2013) was a Chicana scholar, activist and educator. Burciaga worked for over twenty years at Stanford University[1] where she was the "highest ranking Latino administrator on campus."[2] She advocated for the University to hire more women and people of color when she was a high-ranking administrator at Stanford.[1] She was also extremely committed to enrolling more Chicano students, especially in graduate studies.[2] Burciaga served on the National Advisory on Women with President Jimmy Carter and for President Bill Clinton as a member of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans.[3] An award named after her and her husband, José Antonio Burciaga, is given at Stanford to students who show significant contributions to the community.[4]

Biography

Burciaga was born in Pomona and grew up in Chino.[1] Her parents were Mexican immigrants who ran a dairy farm.[1] Her mother encouraged her to read, rather than do housework.[5] She graduated from Pomona Catholic High School in 1963.[6]

Burciaga first taught at the high school level as a Spanish teacher in Chino.[7]

Burciaga started working at Stanford in 1974.[8] Part of her initial job was to help increase the number of Mexican Americans attending Stanford and working as staff and faculty.[7] Within three years, she had been promoted to assistant provost of faculty affairs based on her successful recruitment of Mexican Americans.[7] In this position, she helped recruit more minority and women faculty members.[7] In the 1980, she became assistant to the university president and provost for Chicano affairs.[8] During the 1980s, in an interview, she discussed how even though affirmative action was part of the mission of Stanford, there was apathy and a general attitude that there were no "qualified candidates" among minority groups.[9] In 1991 she was promoted to associate dean.[7] Burciaga was not only an administrator at Stanford, she also facilitated Chicano and Latino students' integration into campus life.[10]

Burciaga was laid off from Stanford University in 1994, due to budget cuts[5] said the current provost, Condoleezza Rice.[1] Stanford students were so incensed by her lay-off that they staged protests and hunger strikes.[1] The hunger strikes took place in May and lasted between four and five days.[10]

In 1994, she became a founding dean of Cal State University, Monterey Bay.[1] She worked as an administrator there for many years.[11] In 2002, the university settled on a lawsuit brought by Burciaga and two others, citing racial discrimination as to the cause.[2] The settlement established a $1.5 million scholarship fund for low-income students from California.[2]

She died in Stanford, California on March 25, 2013 of lung cancer.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Trounson, Rebecca (27 March 2013). "Cecilia Preciado Burciaga Dies at 67, Longtime Stanford Administrator". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 19 May 2015.
  2. ^ a b c d Noriega, Chon A. (1 April 2013). "Cecilia Preciado Burciaga, Presente!". Huffington Post. Retrieved 19 May 2015.
  3. ^ Taylor, Dennis (28 March 2013). "Cecilia Burciaga: Latina Activist and Bay Area College Administrator Dead at 67". San Jose Mercury News. Retrieved 19 May 2015.
  4. ^ "Cecilia and Tony Burciaga Community Development Award". El Centro Chicano y Latino. Stanford University. Retrieved 19 May 2015.
  5. ^ a b Villagran, Nora Elizabeth (13 May 1994). "Woman of Diversity Cecilia Burciaga Looks to a Future Without Stanford". San Jose Mercury News.
  6. ^ "Alumni Spotlight" (PDF). The Pace Setter. 1 (1): 9. December 2011. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 May 2015. Retrieved 19 May 2015.
  7. ^ a b c d e Meier, Matt S.; Gutierrez, Margo (2000). Encyclopedia of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. pp. 189–190. ISBN 9780313304255.
  8. ^ a b Sullivan, Kathleen J. (2 April 2013). "Cecilia Preciado Burciaga, Advocate for Latino Students, Dead at 67". Stanford News. Retrieved 19 May 2015.
  9. ^ Coit, Lois (31 July 1984). "Remembering the 'Ones Not There'". The Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 20 May 2015.
  10. ^ a b Najarro, Ileana (5 April 2013). "Cecilia Burciaga, Chicano/Latino Student Advocate, Dies at 67, Leaving Extensive Legacy". The Stanford Daily. Retrieved 19 May 2015.
  11. ^ "In Memoriam". Chronicle of Higher Education. 59 (31). 12 April 2013. Retrieved 19 May 2015.
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