In this article, the author shares his experience being the "chair" of the Department of Latin American and Puerto Rican Studies at Lehman College of the City University of New York. He also shares how this department proved to be an "ordinary" department at an "ordinary" liberal arts college. However, to conclude that they are an ordinary department is to admit that they have lost the political and social fervor, the militancy, the oomph that led to the creation of what was originally called the Department of Puerto Rican Studies. Students take their courses to fulfill requirements, to simplify their schedules, or--at best--out of mild curiosity. Members of the department are too worn down by the heavy teaching load at CUNY (seven courses annually spread out over two semesters) and the pursuit of scholarship to be community activists. But then, the author, as chair of the Department of Latin American and Puerto Rican Studies, he does not worry about a political or intellectual confrontation. He has learned to have a sixth sense for noticing ethnocentric behavior, but he has yet to be assaulted with ethnic chauvinism or ethnic skullduggery (directed either at him personally or at his department). His concern as chair is more pedestrian: He worries about their department being slighted, or passed over altogether, when resources are distributed at the college. [This article was produced by American Association of University Professors, Washington, DC. ]