Students Force the University To Reevaluate It's Position On Ethnic Studies.

The debate may be heating up again. In 1990, students loudly protested the lack of University support for Afro-American Studies. And after a quiet two years, other undergraduate groups are now raising demands for ethnic studies courses--this time focusing on Latino and Asian-American issues.

The president of La O, the campus Puerto Rican organization, and Raza, the Mexican-American student group, are calling for more courses on Latino history and culture in the United States. They have taken their concerns to Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles and other University Hall administrators.

The Asian-American Association (AAA) recently formed a new political committee to coordinate efforts to bring Asian-American professors and courses to Harvard. Eunice Yoon '93, the committee's co-chair, says she would like to see an American studies program at Harvard and will push for more permanent Asian-American issues courses and professors.

Controversy surrounding ethnic studies is a national phenomenon. Conservatives and liberals across the country have clashed over canons, political correctness and the need to address an increasingly multicultural society.

It may be time, students are suggesting, to revive the debate to Harvard, where they see a paucity of ethnic studies courses and the lack of a clearly defined program.

Associate Dean of Undergraduate Education Lawrence A. Buell agrees that there is a dearth of courses on ethnicity at Harvard. Buell says the school's ethnic studies curriculum, if there is such a thing, is "embryotic right now--scarcely there except for a transient few courses."

Those "transient few courses" are listed on five pages in the course catalog, under "Courses Related to Ethnic Studies in the United States."

In addition, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences currently reserves funds to support a full-time faculty position in ethnic studies. The University can choose to give the money to one professor or to two more part-time scholars, says Professor of Sociology Aage B. Sorensen.

Sorensen chairs the faculty committee, formed in the late 1980s by the Dean of the Faculty A. Michael Spence, that oversees the ethnic studies slots, His committee consults and negotiates with departments to determine the appointments, he says.

This spring, Visiting Lecturer Betty Louise Bell will use the slot to teach a women's studies course on images of Native American women, Sorensen says.

Xiao-huang Yin, a historian of Asian American culture, and Rodolfo O. De La Garsa, a scholar of Latino politics, were offered visiting positions. Both announced at the last minute that they would not be able to join the Harvard faculty this year.

That's a problem with the system, Sorenson explains. Visiting professors are often well-established at other universities, and may yield to other commitments with little notice.

"It inevitably happens; you're dealing with people who have busy lives," Sorensen says.

Last year, Sorensen met with the Harvard Foundation's Academic Affairs Committee to discuss ways to structure an ethnic studies program. He says he hopes to produce a proposal this year.

"I think that there is a strong wish on the part of students to have some kind of recognition," Sorensen says.

Minority student leaders say the present dearth of ethnic studies hurts both their communities and the student body as a whole.

"It just shows that Harvard isn't committed to the type of diversity that they preach to the students that come in, the students who are applying," says Efrain Cortes '93, president of La O. "It is a very important issue to the Latino community at Harvard."

Although her organization has not launched a vocal campaign for ethnic studies courses, Native Americans at Harvard President Venus S. McGhee '94 says she sees a shortage of Native American classes and faculty representation.

"We have a visiting professor at the Divinity School," she says. "Besides that, there isn't enough to put together a Native American Studies concentration."

Harvard-Radcliffe Black Students Association President Zaheer R. Ali '94 says he would like to see the existing Afro-American Studies Department strengthened.

"I definitely think that everyone should fight for representation in the curriculum," says Ali. His organization, he said, "is more interested in bringing faculty with diversity of experiences...it's not enough to have just a Black or a brown face."

Student minority leaders also say they see a strong demand for the courses they are requesting.

"A lot of people come to me saying they'd like to take classes in Hispanic literature or Hispanic history," says Cortes.

Foundation Academic Affairs Committee Chair Mariano-Florentino Cuellar '93 says he thinks that some students who "wouldn't concentrate" in ethnic studies would definitely take classes in the field.

Yoon says she thinks that many students are currently interested in ethnic studies but are discouraged by the lack of support.

Some students attempting to write these on minority-focused topics have found it impossible in the present framework.

Tae-hui Kim '93, a Social Studies concentrator, wanted to write her senior honors essay on Korean American small businesses in the U.S. She said she could find no classes related to the topic and no Harvard professors knowledgeable in the field.

"I had a hard time finding anyone who knew any thing about it," she said. She is writing instead about low-income housing policies, a topic that arose out of her classwork.

Harvard trails a number of other institutions in the area of ethnic studies. Yale has interdisciplinary majors in Chicano studies and Asian-American studies.

A number of schools on the West Coast offer concentrations in ethnic studies as well. At the University of California at Berkeley, a Council for Ethnic Studies Curricula oversees all ethnic studies disciplines.

Berkeley offers graduate and undergraduate degrees in ethnic, Asian-American, Chicano and Native American studies. African-American studies is a separate department. The ethnic studies major is a combination of at least three ethnic focuses.

"It makes people aware of who they are and who other people are," said Elizabeth M. Megino, an academic advisor in the Berkeley ethnic studies department. "It's important that people know about other cultures so they can get along with them."

Berkeley also has an ethnic studies graduation requirement for all students: a half--year course focusing on at least three cultures.

Stanford University offers an American studies major, which offers classes that focus on issues of ethnicity. Councils on the study of Mexicans in the U.S., Asian Americans and Native Americans help to inform students about cross-listed courses in other departments.

For Harvard, Sorensen says he sees a number of possible ways to further institutionalize ethnic studies. One, he says, is an ethnic studies department. Another is a committee--along the lines of Social Studies--that would oversee degrees in ethnic studies.

A third, he says, is a certificate, like the certificate in Latin American studies students currently can receive if they fulfill certain requirements.

Another possibility which some students have raised--although Sorenson does not--is a range of ethnic-specific departments.

But Harvard professors disagree about which program would best suit the University--and many doubt that such a program is necessary at all.

Multiple departments, says Sefaris Professor of Modern Greek Studies Margaret B. Alexiou, carry the threat of academic fragmentation.

"I think it's very dangerous to put small subjects like my own into...little ghettoes, as it were," Alexiou says.

"We must be careful not to fragment the institution into a number of very small departments," agrees Knowles. "I think that's extravagant administratively and it doesn't encourage intellectual inter-change."

Some professors say that even one department focusing on ethnic studies is not necessary here.

Associate Professor of Sociology Mary C. Waters suggests that the social studies and sociology concentrations already provide the opportunity to study different aspects of ethnicity.

"If a student wants to look at this from an interdisciplinary perspective," Waters says, there are "very natural places to concentrate and then go far afield and study ethnicity as your subject."

Professor of English Marjorie Garber's objection to an ethnic studies department is mainly pragmatic.

"In the present state of FAS, fiscally speaking, it would be very hard to muster any department," says Garber, who is also the assistant dean of the Faculty for affirmative action.

Associate Professor of Music Graeme M. Boone, who teaches courses on ethnomusicology, questions the very concept of ethnic studies.

"The idea of ethnic studies is already something of ghettoization, isn't it?" Boone asks.

Because ethnicity is part of every discipline--shaping music, art and literature--perhaps it should be better integrated into the curricula of many departments, rather than segregated into one, Boone says.

With so many doubts and disagreements about ethnic studies, the direction Harvard will take is unclear. Waters suggests integrating ethnic studies into every course here. Alexiou suggests a focus on comparative studies--like the course she teaches on Greek and Black women's voices in literature.

Whatever the University does about ethnic studies, Waters says, it needs to donate sufficient resources to the program if that program is to succeed.

One danger with ethnic studies, Waters says, is "starting an ethnic studies program without a very strong commitment to it."