Students discuss ethnic studies

Students and faculty assembled last night in West Quad Residence Hall to discuss the state of the Ethnic Studies programs at the University. Representatives from the Center for Afroamerican and African Studies, Asian Pacific American Studies, Latino Studies and Native American Studies outlined the current state of each program.

One of the main topics of discussion was the lack of tenured faculty within each of the programs.

"Right now each program seems to be struggling in its own way, it always seems like we are losing people and not gaining anything," said Engineering sophomore Rupal Patel, one of the organizers of the event.

DHANI JONES/Daily Ronnie Rhoe, coordinator for Asian Pacific American studies affairs in MESA, speaks at the ethic affairs dialogue yesterday.

"That's why we put this thing on, so we can show our struggles are common and then together make a plan to show the University that there is a lack of mentors of color," she added.

Currently, programs such as Asian Pacific American studies, Latino studies and Native American studies are grouped within the department of American culture in the College of Literature, Science and the Arts. This lack of departmental status prevents the programs from becoming strong, said Betty Bell, director of Native American studies.

"To teach in any of the programs, you must also be appointed to another department in LSA. This means double the workload in terms of committee requirements, which leads to less attention given to work in the Native Studies programs," Bell said.

Bell also highlighted the fact that there are only two tenured professors who teach Native Studies, one of them being her. "Our courses are extremely popular, students want to take them, they are usually filled but we just don't have enough faculty to meet the demand," she said.

Gail Nomura, director of Asian Pacific American studies outlined other problems. "Our community of students and their interests in the field are growing. However, the department is suspect. There is a demand, and we need students and faculty to spread word of this demand," she said.

She also stated that since faculty in American culture must teach in other departments, they are often reviewed by people not in the field of Asian Pacific American studies.

"The scrutiny that people who teach in Ethnic Studies face is beyond what is acceptable. The bar for review of their applications is twice as high," said Nomura.

Latino/a studies Director Tomas Almaguer, explained that the program, although small, has in recent years been given the chance to develop and grow.

"This new support is directly a result of graduate and undergraduate students pressuring the University to expand the program," he said.

Evans Young, assistant director of the Center for Afro-American and African Studies, spoke about the origins of CAAS.

"CAAS was created as a result of student pressure and demonstration," he said.

James Jackson, director of CAAS, explained the efforts that are being made in hiring. "We hope to make eight to 12 appointments this year, which would be a record," he said.

The second part of the program turned to students and faculty discussing how the problems that were outlined could be addressed. All of the faculty present concurred that the need to be able to make their own hires by gaining departmental status for American culture was a pressing issue. They urged the students to pressure the University to see these needs.

"Faculty and students need to establish institutional relationships with each other," said LSA senior JuJuan Buford. He offered ideas such as holding a students of color conference or to have open houses during Welcome Week where students can learn about issues.

03-18-99