Ethnic Studies Campaign Ready To Take Action

Two months after proponents of an ethnic studies concentration initiated a new wave of activism with a panel discussion, campaign organizer Tri M. Phuong '02 announced last night that students are ready to take concrete action toward the creation of an ethnic studies concentration.

The campaign's immediate aims include creating a cohesive, organized group of student and faculty activists and increasing the number of ethnic studies courses taught at Harvard.

The group also hopes to increase awareness through measures such as tabling at concentration fairs and presenting students' opinions on the matter to administrators.

Last night, Phuong and around 40 other students and faculty members gathered in the Mather House small dining room to carve out their plans.

"The dynamics of ethnic studies is intrinsic to my own identity and the world which I live in," Phuong said. "This dinner took a month to put together...I want this to be a productive discussion."

Students told faculty members of their frustration in trying to meld different ethnic courses into their already packed schedules and reiterated the need for a comprehensive ethnic studies department.

"I feel like I've been given the tools and foundation to study ethnicity," Tin-Ming Hsu '00 said. "But what we need to do is actually push [ethnic studies'] scholarship to the next level. And that won't happen when students are squeezing courses in on the side."

Hsu, a joint concentrator in social studies and religion, recently completed her senior thesis on the role of the church in Asian American communities.

She said that while she had three different advisors and other means at Harvard available to assist her in her writing, she said she was forced to look outside the University in order to learn about the cutting-edge scholarship surrounding the Asian American experience.

"There were resources [at Harvard]," she said, "but I felt like the heart of my issue fell through the cracks."

At the meeting, students distributed packets that included both a mission statement for the Campaign for Ethnic Studies at Harvard and a listing of different ethnic studies courses which could be integrated into the Harvard curriculum.

Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures Dorris Sommer, who is a member of an ad hoc Faculty of Arts and Sciences Committee on Ethnic Studies (CES), emphasized that there is grant money currently available for professors who want to create new courses dealing with ethnic studies.

"If the course is good, the money is there," she said.

Sommer encouraged students to urge their professors to take advantage of this opportunity, calling teachers "putty in the hands of fans."

Professor of Chinese Literature Leo Ou-fan Lee, also a member of CES, said consolidating student and faculty efforts is crucial in confronting the administration with their request for the creation of an ethnic studies concentration.

"We must organize a key group of interested members," he said.

Sommer said one immediate goal is to gather an informal group of professors to discuss the issue.

"We should try to do a kind of in-house structure and then go public once it has some sort of track record," she said. "Harvard likes things that work. It is afraid of things it hasn't seen yet."

But the push for an ethnic studies concentration is not new to Harvard.

Three years ago, students met with administrators with a plan of study for an ethnic studies concentration, which the administrators ultimately rejected. Lee said many students left the meeting feeling frustrated.

Since the ethnic studies debate was reopened in February, students have met with George J. Sanchez '81--president of the American Studies Association, a national organization dedicated to developing American studies courses--to discuss potential course additions.

The campaign also raised awareness for its cause at the annual Cultural Rhythms festival this year by wearing green armbands and circulating a petition that was signed by host Matt Damon.

But Lee said he worries that the political nature of ethnic studies may act as a barrier to their efforts, as it has in the past.

"Some faculty see it as a self-empowerment question," he said.

Phuong said it was time to realize that the movement for ethnic studies is a political statement.

"The creation of an ethnic studies concentration at Harvard has politicized ramifications," he said.

Lonnie Everson '02 said the administration's resistance to ethnic studies has only increased the political nature of the movement.

"We had a concrete plan in '97," he said. "We've tried to work with the administration on more of an intellectual level, and the fact that they are afraid of the political nature [of ethnic studies] is ironic because if we don't see results within the system, we're willing to take it to a political level."