The Latino Leadership Council is giving members of the Tenure Final Review Committee two weeks to respond to letters that LLC members, students and faculty hand-delivered to their offices yesterday, said LLC co-director and ethnic studies senior Mary Gonzalez.

LLC wrote the letters as part of its campaign protesting the University's denial of tenure to a Latina professor.

Barbara Robles, an assistant professor of public affairs, was approved for tenure by the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs but was denied tenure in January by a final review committee made up of UT President Larry Faulkner, Executive Vice President and Provost Sheldon Ekland-Olson, Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies Victoria Rodriguez and Vice President of Research Juan Sanchez.

Gonzalez said if the committee does not respond within two weeks, LLC will hold protests, sit-ins and town hall meetings. In the past, LLC has not been given responses to questions they raised, she said. The group has not received a response from any of the committee members.

After an article published in Tuesday's Texan, Gonzalez said faculty, alumni and students flooded the Multicultural Information Center where they picked up the letters to deliver.

"We have no clue [on the number of letters sent], but it was very strong," Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez said state Rep. Eddie Rodriguez, D-Austin, wrote and sent his own letter yesterday.

Robles had two weeks to appeal the committee's decision, but did not. She could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

She is one of two Latinas in the LBJ school and is one of three professors in the nation to focus on Latino economic issues.

Robles is the founder of the Latino Financial Issues Program, which is an undergraduate program focusing on research and finding internships for students at non-profit government agencies.

Gonzalez said Robles' denial for tenure by the committee will discourage professors of color to teach at the University. She said the committee's decision is also in opposition to what Faulkner said he wanted during his state of the University address Oct. 6. Faulkner said he was going to work to diversify University faculty.

Faulkner said he cannot discuss individual cases but that "any time you're dealing with [these cases] you have consider the specifics within each individual case."

"The large scale goals of the campus may or may not be supported by the facts of an individual case," Faulkner said.

Faulkner said he will respond and give the group a chance to ask questions, though he has not set a date.

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