Your Week with AZCentral: 🎓 ASU kicked him out.…

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Your Week with AZCentral

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Fri May 17 2024

Raphael Romero Ruiz | Engagement Reporter

@raphaeldelag

Hey reader,

College campuses have a legacy as the arenas where students let the country hear their voices. From demonstrations against the Vietnam War to the more recent mobilizations of young people after the killing of George Floyd in 2020 and now in response to the conflict in Gaza,students have always been at the center of political and social movements that seek to hold those in power accountable.

Alfredo Gutierrez , who served as the Arizona State Senate Majority Leader from 1974 to 1986, was one of those students when he attended ASU in the 1960s. His activism, including leading student protests on campus, got him kicked out in 1968 without a diploma.

This week, I spoke with The Republic’s Race, Equity, Opportunity Reporter Daniel Gonzalez, who wrote about Gutierrez, now 78, finally graduating from ASU. We talked about Gutierrez’s motives for returning to school after such an established political career — and the unrest on our college campuses now.

🎓 Kicked out of ASU in ’68 for protesting, Alfredo Gutierrez to graduate

Who is Alfredo Gutierrez?

Alfredo Gutierrez has been a figure in Latino political leadership in Arizona for decades, having served in the State Senate for 14 years. Many of our readers might recognize his name, but for folks who may not know of him, can you give us a snapshot of his political career?

Daniel: After receiving a Kennedy Memorial Fellowship, which took him from Miami, Arizona, to the East Coast, Alfredo Gutierrez returned to Arizona and ran for the state Senate in 1972 as a Democrat and won. He was in his mid-20s. He took office in 1973 and two years later became Senate Majority Leader and then-Senate Minority Leader when the Democrats lost control of the Senate. He served a total of 14 consecutive years in the Senate, most of that time in leadership roles. This was before term limits. In 2002, Gutierrez ran for governor of Arizona. Janet Napolitano won the Democrat primary and went on to be elected Governor. In 2014, Gutierrez was appointed to a seat on the Maricopa Community Colleges governing board. He stepped down as president in 2018 after a brain injury from a fall temporarily affected his ability to talk and walk.

What inspired the 78-year-old to finish his degree

When I first read the headline to your story, the first thing I thought was: Why isn’t Gutierrez out at a beach enjoying his retirement? As I read your story, I came to understand that his reasoning for why he felt the need to go back to school came from a place of redemption. What can you tell us about his motivations for going back to school?

Daniel: Alfredo, who I’ve known for more than 20 years writing about Arizona’s large Mexican American and Latino population, told me he wanted to finish his degree for several reasons. He had spent a lot of time in his life urging young people, especially Latinos, to stay in school and go to college. But he felt like a hypocrite knowing he himself had never earned a college degree. After returning from Vietnam, Alfredo enrolled at Arizona State University on the GI Bill. But he was kicked out in 1968 for leading student protests against the mistreatment of Mexican immigrant women working at a laundry under contract with the university. So that was one reason. He’s also a very driven man who has accomplished a lot, a trait one could attribute to his life growing up in Miami, Arizona, a mining town where Mexican Americans struggled against segregation and discrimination. At 78, finishing his degree seemed like one more worthy challenge. Lastly, he told me earning a degree was a good way of finally getting back at the ASU officials who denied him from earning degree nearly 60 years ago.

‘History will be the judge’

The past couple of weeks have been full of news of protests and campus encampments across universities around the country. Students are calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, with some asking their universities to divest from Israel. At Arizona State, a group of student protestors who were arrested has filed a lawsuit against the university due to suspensions that they say infringe on their First Amendment rights. Can we draw any parallels between student protestors today and Gutierrez? What can we learn from the past that can be applied to today?

Daniel: Alfredo noted that he would be receiving his degree at a time when student protests were taking place once again at ASU, though for different reasons. When he was first a student at ASU in the Sixties, students were protesting the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. The civil rights movement and the Chicano movement were also taking place. I’m not sure what lessons can be learned from the past. It’s not clear what will happen to the students kicked off campus after being arrested during the April pro-Palestine protests. But perhaps, as Alfredo’s story shows, history will be the judge.

This newsletter is written by Raphael Romero Ruiz. Reach him at rromeroruiz@gannett.com. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @raphaeldelag.

Kicked out of ASU in ’68, Latino leader to graduate

Alfredo Gutierrez, one of Arizona’s most influential Latino leaders, earned a degree nearly 60 years after he was kicked out of ASU for protesting.

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