The UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center (CSRC) was founded in 1969 with a commitment to foster multidisciplinary research efforts as part of the land grant mission of the University of California . That mission states that University of California research needs to be in the service of the state and that it must maintain a presence in the local community.
The CSRC serves the entire campus and supports faculty and students in the social sciences, life sciences, humanities, and the professional schools. Its research addresses the growing Chicano and Latino population, which now constitutes nearly one-third of California and one-half of Los Angeles, but continues to have disproportionately low access to higher education. Given its campus- and community-wide mandate, the CSRC reports directly to the Office of the Chancellor at UCLA. The CSRC also forms part of the Inter-University Program for Latino Research (IUPLR), a consortium of Latino research centers located at sixteen institutions in the United States.
The CSRC houses a library and special collections archive, an academic press, research projects, community-based partnerships, two competitive grant/fellowship programs, and the Los Tigres del Norte Fund. It is also the host of a new book series on Latina/o artists titled A Ver: Revisioning Art History.
Since the 1970s, the CSRC holds six "institutional FTE" or faculty positions that are placed on loan to departments. These positions were originally designed to increase the center's research capacity, but also to allow the center to serve as a vital force across campus for diversifying the curriculum and the faculty.