Campus battlegrounds: Puerto Rican student activism in higher education and community leadership in Chicago, 1970-1985

This dissertation analyzes the Puerto Rican student struggle in Chicago’s higher education from 1970 to 1985. Throughout this period, Puerto Rican student activists fought to transform a racist higher education system. I argue that higher education served as a training battleground where Puerto Rican student activists could systematize and articulate community knowledge to address educational, political, and community concerns. Drawing on thirteen semi-structured interviews and extensive archival records, Campus Battlegrounds analyzes the interlink between community struggle, student activism, and political leadership. The findings suggest that Puerto Rican student activists, informed by community leaders, demanded change in higher education. After college, Puerto Rican student activists utilized their knowledge alongside a college credential to struggle for political representation and resources for the Puerto Rican community in Chicago. This dissertation adds important directions to the study of student activism, particularly the linkage between community struggles and radical student activism. It also inserts Puerto Rican student activism into the broader literature of student activism. In the end, I argue that the Puerto Rican campus-based movement, due to their connections to Puerto Rican community activists, benefited from their leadership, thus providing Puerto Rican student activists with a great source of stability and longevity that continues today.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Educ Policy, Orgzn & Leadrshp

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2022

Author dc:creator

• Velez, Angel L.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Anderson, James D.
• Pak, Yoon
• Zamani-Gallaher, Eboni M.
• Welton, Anjale

• Puerto Rican history
• student activism
• higher education
• community leadership

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2021 Angel Luis Velez Rodriguez

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/113053

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/113053