UC Berkeley Journalism - Faculty

Lydia Chavez Wins Tenure

Lydia Chavez was promoted to tenure in June, making her the first tenured woman at the Graduate School of Journalism. The status guarantees a life-long teaching position and recognizes achievement in research and teaching.
In a somewhat unusual move, the University granted Chavez tenure before her first book went to press. The book, “Color Blind,” follows the campaign for Proposition 209 in California, and the University of California Press will publish it in the spring of 1998.

The tenure decision was a testament to the quality of Chavez's book, said Dean Orville Schell.

"Lydia's a good teacher," said Schell. "She's a good person and she's a good journalist. What she had to do was satisfy the publish or perish dragon."
And that she did, just in the nick of time.

Chavez, 45, came from the New York Times and began teaching at the journalism school in 1990. Normally, instructors hired for tenure-track positions must present their case for tenure, which requires publication, by the end of six years. Chavez was given an extra year because she is a single parent; she has two daughters, Geraldine, 11 and Lola, 10.

While high profile magazine articles can satisfy the publication requirement for tenure -- and Chavez has written several Los Angeles Times magazine articles -- books are encouraged, she said.

"The difficulty was finding something that I thought was important for a book and something that I could tell as a story."

After researching several ideas that fell through and with tenure deadline only a few years away, she got interested in the California Civil Rights Initiative, an anti-affirmative action measure that she personally opposed. Now her shot at tenure was wrapped up in whether the initiative would gain enough support to get onto the California ballot.

"It was incredibly stressful," Chavez said. "If it didn't get on the ballot, I wouldn't get tenure. If it did get on the ballot, I knew it would pass."

To her academic good fortune (but political dismay), the measure got on the ballot by the spring of '96. The campaign wouldn't end until November, technically after her deadline.

As Chavez predicted, California voters passed the measure in the fall. Three months later, she presented her case for tenure with six of the eight book chapters completed. She was informed of the tenure decision in June and promoted July 1.

The tenure committees consider not only research publications, but also teaching, and service to both the university and the public.

Chavez has taught J200 (Reporting the News) almost every year and will teach an international relations class in the spring. Her international classes have traveled to the Mexican border, Cuba and ethnic neighborhoods of Los Angeles. This spring her class will go to Mexico.

Former Dean Tom Goldstein called Chavez "consistently a superb and innovative teacher." And school administrator Mitch Ikuta said, "She gets among the best student evaluations."

Chavez has also served on numerous university committees, including the committee on the status of women and minorities and the admissions committee for the Latin American studies program.

In addition to being the first tenured woman at the school (Joan Beider is a lecturer with "security of employment"), Chavez is also the first tenured Latino. She is of Spanish and Mexican descent and was born and raised in New Mexico.
Chavez was also recently awarded the Leonard Silk Fellowship, which will allow her to finish the book, an expensive undertaking. Chavez said she received a $2,000 advance from the publisher (UC Press) for the book, but that the project has cost about $20,000.

Celebration so far has been fairly low key -- champagne with friends and a visit from her parents.

"Dad bought me a pair of tennis shoes and mom bought me a purse," she said.

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