Nation’s first four-year, independent Chicano university celebrates 50 years since founding in...

Oregon’s colleges and universities have been adapting for years to serve one of the state’s fastest-growing demographics: Latino students. Institutions have announced new programs focused on Chicano and Latino studies, and some Oregon schools are moving closer to becoming Hispanic Serving Institutions — a federal designation for institutions with at least 25% Latino student enrollment.

But efforts to better serve Latino students in the state started a long time ago. Fifty years ago, a handful of educators and advocates established the nation’s first four-year independent Chicano university. Though the institution closed its doors just 10 years after they opened, Colegio César Chávez’s founders say the school’s legacy continues today.

PODER, Oregon’s Latino Leadership Network, is hosting a 50th anniversary celebration in honor of Colegio César Chávez Saturday.

“If you look at what the colleges were offering then and what they are offering now, there’s been a big, big change,” said Jose Romero, one of the founders of Colegio César Chávez. “We made an impact in that.”

Romero, along with Celedonio “Sonny” Montes and and a few others, founded Colegio César Chávez in 1973 in Mt. Angel, Oregon. The college took over a campus that had previously been Mt. Angel College, owned by The Benedictine Sisters of Mt. Angel.