Pushing for Identity Studies

Though no structural changes have been instituted, student and Faculty supporters of these initiatives, who have joined under the umbrella of a newly formed “diversity coalition,” said their movements have made important strides this year—and they plan to keep up the pressure.

“The truth of the matter is that these movements all share a common objective,” said Luis Hernandez, a Divinity School student and chair of Concilio Latino. “In the fundamental sense, we all believe that diversity is academic excellence.”

Discussions about these initiatives resulted in a flurry of proposals ranging from new centers and departments to committees and certificates.

Whether any of these proposals will come to fruition remains to be seen.

Coming Apart—And Then Together

After attending a conference at Columbia University on ethnic studies this winter, a broad base of support coalesced in favor of the cause.

But the coalition that formed out of that conference faced a rocky start.

At a February rally, growing tensions between the fledgling movement for Latino studies and the students who had previously been lobbying for ethnic studies nearly boiled over, as the Latino students threatened to withdraw.

The Latino studies advocates said they felt their movement might be overshadowed by a broader movement for ethnic studies.

But the coalition survived its infancy and the movements for ethnic and Latino studies continued to collaborate throughout the spring semester.

“From that experience I learned that it’s important to always check back with everyone in the whole coalition,” said Ethan Y. Yeh ’03, one of the ethnic studies movement’s organizers. “We had just been formed and were not sure what to expect from each other.”

Perhaps the culmination of this cooperation occurred during a series of protests over pre-frosh weekend.

During that weekend, a loose “diversity coalition” officially brought together Latino studies and ethnic studies advocates with a third group that had been lobbying for curriculum change in the field of queer studies.

Along with other groups on campus, they banded together to protest what they called Harvard’s “inactivity and indifference” regarding diversity.

A silent protest in white masks—intended to symbolize the demographics of the Faculty—and a rally were the products of the coalition, which also included members of the Black Students Association, the Asian American Association, RAZA, the Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, Transgender Student Alliance (BGLTSA), Diversity and Distinction and the Progressive Student Labor Movement.

Besides their shared goals of making mroe diverse the Faculty and the curriculum, the groups said they were welded together by a common frustration with the administration, particularly with University President Lawrence H. Summers.

At the rally, students carried a giant papier-mache replication of Summers’ head that sported dollar signs for eyes.

BGLTSA leader Fred O. Smith ’04, who led the April 21 rally, said the groups wanted “to motivate Summers to be a more proactive president regarding issues of diversity.”

The Wish List

The most comprehensive set of recommendations this year came in May, when ethnic studies supporters distributed a “diversity package” to Faculty and administrators.

The report was compiled by the Academic Affairs Committee, a student subgroup of the Harvard Foundation for Race and Intercultural Relations, many of whose members are active in the ethnic studies movement.

The report proposed that Harvard create a center for the study of race and ethnicity—modeled after similar centers at Columbia and Stanford—by the end of next year.

It also called for the creation of “four professorial chairs—one each in Native American, Asian American, Latino and Comparative Race and Ethnic Studies.”

To attain these goals, the report suggested a College-sponsored committee composed of faculty from other schools be established to “produce a proposal recommending a race and ethnic studies program for Harvard” by the end of next year.

Students maintain that they can, and must, work within the system to institute their proposals.

“We’re at such an early stage that there’s a lot that can still be done in cooperation with the administration and Faculty,” said John Y. Hsu ’03, who is active in the ethnic studies movement.

Indeed, the Committee on Ethnic Studies (CES) helped further the students’ goals this year when they hired 12 visiting faculty offering courses pertaining to ethnic studies across different departments, though this falls far short of students’ original desires.

CES has also backed away from its seeming readiness to issue a certificate in ethnic studies.

“Our goal is to get as many courses in the book as possible, so students interested in ethnic studies can plan a little bit into the future,” said CES Chair Werner M. Sollors in March. Sollors is a professor of American civilization and of Afro-American studies.

Latino studies advocates have also offered various proposals to increase scholarship in their area of interest.

Their most recent proposal, which called for an inter-faculty initiative on globalization, immigration and transcultural studies, was deemed to be “promising” by University Provost Steven E. Hyman at a meeting in April.

“Everyone’s attention should be focused on assuring that these University-wide needs for academic diversity are aptly satisfied, and not on what the end result is called,” Hernandez said.

Navigating The Waters

Students’ frustration with what they said was a lack of response on the part of the administration led them to take a mix of tactics—working within the system and becoming more vocal through protests—to advance their cause this school year.

A silent protest in February highlighted students’ discontent with their role on CES, though Sollors has repeatedly said students have not taken advantage of the opportunities presented to them to participate.

“The point of the rally was to remind the administration that students do care about this issue and care about having their voices heard,” Yeh said.

In February, participants in the annual Cultural Rhythms show wore green ribbons showing support for Ethnic studies.

And as the spring went on, students continued to meet with administrators.

RAZA President Maribel Hernandez and Luis Hernandez, representing the movement for Latino studies, met with Summers at his March office hours. They presented him with a letter, signed by more than 100 Harvard students and faculty, requesting a Latino studies department.

The pair said at the time they were upset with how Summers treated the issue at that meeting, saying he was disrespectful to both the field of Latino studies and Afro-American studies.

But the University strongly contested both the accuracy of the students’ account and their interpretation of Summers’ response.

The students later met with Hyman to discuss the proposal for the inter-faculty initiative.

In early April, students met with Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Jeremy R. Knowles to continue their discussion of the future of ethnic studies, leaving aside specific proposals.

“We didn’t talk about certificates or centers or committees, and our conversation was thoughtfully focused on how to improve the academic experience of what is an intellectually eclectic group of students,” Knowles wrote in an April e-mail.

But the students did present Knowles with a written list of proposals to improve the University’s offerings for students interested in ethnic studies. They suggested making CES, which is currently an ad hoc committee, a standing committee, implementing an ethnic studies certificate and increasing the number of courses and professors in the field.

Gender and Sexuality

The movement for queer studies has differed from these grassroots movements for ethnicity-based studies because it is a faculty-sponsored initiative. However, this effort still has much ground to cover, as there currently exists no official committee for queer studies.

In late February, the movement for queer studies at Harvard solidified in the form of a group of about 12 Faculty, spearheaded by Lecturer in Literature Heather K. Love ’91 and Professor of Romance Languages and Literature Bradley S. Epps.

These faculty have been pushing the administration to consider adding queer studies as an official standing Faculty committee, much like the current committee for which ethnic studies supporters are lobbying.

Supporters say this committee—which could not even grant degrees—would provide “curricular space” for work that Harvard students are already pursuing in queer and gay and lesbian studies.

“We want to go about developing some sense of how one would go about pursuing an interest in this field in a logical way,” Love said in February.

The committee’s work could include compiling lists of courses that could fall into the category of queer studies and informing students of faculty members who would be willing to serve as advisors for theses in queer studies.

—Staff writer Sarah M. Seltzer can be reached at sseltzer@fas.harvard.edu.