Faculty Reviews Ethnic Studies

A report outlining this year's goals for the Standing Committee on Ethnic Studies calls for no major changes in the discipline, including no suggestion of an ethnic studies department or a degree granting committee.

The report sees ethnic studies as having a broader role in the university, a role that is inherently cross-disciplinary, according to a member of the Faculty Council, which discussed the report yesterday.

And the document also details the increase in courses in ethnic studies, temporary faculty appointments and special programs.

Nonetheless, the absence of plans of major change may come as a disappointment to some student activists. Advocates of ethnic studies held several rallies last year in the Yard to protest the University's lack of the study of "racialized ethnicities": Asian-Americans, Hispanics, Latinos and Native Americans.

Faculty Council members, however, had nothing but praise for the document.

"To me, it is a very carefully-reasoned report that outlines a very vigorous debate," said Wilson Professor of Applied Astronomy George Field, a council member.

Thomson Professor of Government Jorge I. Dominguez and Professor of Chinese Literature Leo O. Lee, who co-chair the committee, presented the report at yesterday's meeting.

Dominguez has said in the past that the University is making progress on ethnic studies offerings.

"My own analysis is that the speed and the number of appointments in ethnic studies has been greater precisely because several departments... have said, 'You know we really want someone here who does ethnic studies,'" Dominguez said last year.

Benefits

The council also spent part of the meeting reviewing a recent report of the University Benefits Committee.

Council members were concerned with the implementation of a required co-payment for each visit to University Health Services (UHS).

Starting this year, faculty and staff who are members of UHS's health management organization must pay $10 for every visit to the doctor.

The payments were implemented in part to discourage those who are not sick from visiting the doctor.

Council members objected to this additional expense.

"From my perspective, it's just another way for health care providers to collect more money," said Professor of English and American Literature and Language Daniel G. Donoghue. "If you make 20 visits to the doctor, that amounts to another months' premium."

Retirement benefits are on the agenda of next week's faculty meeting.

That issue is particularly important for the University as it grap les with the problem of inducing faculty to retire now that the mandatory retirement age has been lifted

Thomson Professor of Government Jorge I. Dominguez and Professor of Chinese Literature Leo O. Lee, who co-chair the committee, presented the report at yesterday's meeting.

Dominguez has said in the past that the University is making progress on ethnic studies offerings.

"My own analysis is that the speed and the number of appointments in ethnic studies has been greater precisely because several departments... have said, 'You know we really want someone here who does ethnic studies,'" Dominguez said last year.

Benefits

The council also spent part of the meeting reviewing a recent report of the University Benefits Committee.

Council members were concerned with the implementation of a required co-payment for each visit to University Health Services (UHS).

Starting this year, faculty and staff who are members of UHS's health management organization must pay $10 for every visit to the doctor.

The payments were implemented in part to discourage those who are not sick from visiting the doctor.

Council members objected to this additional expense.

"From my perspective, it's just another way for health care providers to collect more money," said Professor of English and American Literature and Language Daniel G. Donoghue. "If you make 20 visits to the doctor, that amounts to another months' premium."

Retirement benefits are on the agenda of next week's faculty meeting.

That issue is particularly important for the University as it grap les with the problem of inducing faculty to retire now that the mandatory retirement age has been lifted