A grouped called Asian-American Curriculum Transformation (AACT) is pressing academic departments with faculty openings to hire professors who will specialize in Asian American-centered courses. Students in the group have also petitioned the administration to increase the focus on Asian-American issues in Tufts' curriculum.
Last fall, AACT submitted two petitions, signed by almost a quarter of the student body, calling for the hiring of Asian-American studies professors to fill vacancies in the sociology, anthropology, and English departments.
"Knowing that current faculty members were leaving both the English and sociology departments, we decided to tackle these voids that were already there," said sophomore AACT member David Wu.
The English department has recommended that the University search for a full-time, tenure-track professor to teach an Asian-American course.
In a Dec. 5 e-mail, however, sociology and anthropology department chair Jim Ennis reportedly told student AACT members that the two department openings are not being held specifically for new Asian-American studies faculty.
One position within the sociology concentration has been designated for a media studies professor to replace departing Professor Paul Lopes, who teaches an introductory course required for the Communications and Media Studies minor. AACT had proposed that Ennis begin a media studies class focused on Asian Americans and Mass Media and hire the appropriate faculty to instruct it. Ennis, however, does not want to limit the search to the Asian-American studies applicant pool.
"We believe that we can secure the widest pool of strong candidates by leaving the specific focus of specialization for this position open," Ennis wrote in the e-mail. "Thus, while a candidate's focus on Asian Americans and Mass Media...would be desirable and appropriate, we would not want to exclude other well-qualified candidates... whose work is on other topics."
The other opening is for an anthropology course on Asians in the Diaspora. Members of AACT requested a written recommendation that the hired professor be qualified to teach both this course and one on Asian Americans. Again, Ennis said he does not want to limit his pool of candidates.
Three courses are currently offered on Asian-American history and culture: one in the American studies department, one on Asian-American issues, and one on Asian-American literature. According to Wu, the demand for classes on Asian-American issues was great enough that students had to be turned away.
AACT wants two full-time professors and would like to see core courses and an Asian-American studies minor offered eventually. "Three courses do not equal a focus area within a major and are not enough for a minor or program," Wu said.
All three current courses are taught by part-time faculty, which does not provide any assurance that they will be available in the future.
"Our main objective is [to] have three Asian-American courses taught by full-time, tenured or tenure-track professors. Right now they're all part-time, so if the professor has to leave at any time... the course won't be offered," said Wu.
Saying that a professor of any ethnicity should be allowed to teach an Asian-American course provided that he or she has a background in the discipline, AACT members maintain that simply hiring American professors of Asian decent will not alleviate the problem. Provost Sol Gittleman agrees, saying that Asian Americans are not the only ones qualified to teach such courses.
In the face of pressure for more professors of economics and South Asian studies - such as Hindi and Urdu - Gittleman says that the School of Arts and Sciences will have to seriously consider its priorities. "Everything isn't top priority," Gittleman said. "Somebody will have to prioritize it and make a decision."
Curriculum diversity aside, the University says it has been making attempts to improve minority recruitment. According to Gitttleman, minority faculty is spread through various disciplines.
Junior Aaron Chiu, another member of AACT, said that curriculum is a more pressing issue than the ethnicity or race of the professors teaching the courses. However, "it would be nice to take care of both at the same time," he said.
AACT hopes that Tufts will have an Asian-American studies minor by 2006. Most ethnic studies programs at the University - from Judaic studies to Latino studies - are run by diverse, interdisciplinary professors whose main concentration is in other subjects.
Drive towards diversity have made an impact on the University in the past. In 1998, the Tufts University Task Force on Race highlighted Tufts' lack of courses focused on Asian-American, Latino, and Native-American issues compared to similar prestigious universities. This year, four new Latino studies classes have been added to the sociology and anthropology departments.
