Amidst growing student dissatisfaction with the lack of race-focused courses at Tufts, the administration is employing a multi-faceted approach to promote a more diverse curriculum at the University. With just under 20 percent of undergraduates identifying as students of color, and diversity numbers improving each year, many are calling for an expansion in focus from the Admissions Office to the academic buildings as well.
Many students believe that the paucity of race-focused courses, along with the small number of minority professors, constitutes the University's principal diversity problem. The desire to learn more about one's own culture and to understand other races and ethnicities - especially in light of the 11 hate crimes that have occurred on campus this fall - seem to hold significant influence over student opinion.
"Curriculum is the foundation for all students to be more tolerant and understanding of other cultures," said Jenn Weng, the Asian Community at Tufts representative to the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate. "With these courses, we could educate the students more. With all these hate crimes happening on campus, it's because the students are uneducated."
Administrators and faculty members recognize the gaps in course options, and a number of committees are working to find solutions to these and other dilemmas involving race. One such group, the Equal Education Opportunity Committee (EEOC) is "especially concerned that the way in which the education is inclusive in terms of race and gender and sexual orientation," according to committee chair and English Professor Elizabeth Ammons.
"There's a tremendous amount of work to be done in terms of race across the entire curriculum.... This is really terrible for an institution that has made such strides to build a multicultural class," she said. "Our curriculum lags way behind."
The under-representation of race-focused courses is most evident in the Native-American, Latino, and Asian-American subject areas, where 11 total courses are offered. In comparison, there are 16 courses with an announced focus on African-American issues alone, and even this relatively high number is a subject of some contention.
Class diversity is the first area where the EEOC is pushing for change. The committee has proposed a "curriculum transformation" plan that would improve course offerings by working with existing resources and professors, and classes would be developed to focus more on various minority facets.
The program, which must be approved by Vice President of Arts, Sciences, and Engineering Mel Bernstein before it can be implemented, is currently being considered by the Diversity Funding Advisory Committee (DFAC).
"Nothing has happened yet. We have not made a recommendation. But [the curriculum transformation] action in all likelihood will be undertaken," said senior senator Margie Yeager, who is a member of both committees.
Bernstein has already announced that at least some of the proposed efforts are "imminent," specifically the Asian-American transformations. "The group has been discussing general ideas to look at curriculum issues and how to respond to changing times, changing issues, and gaps," he said.
The Vice President's office began an effort last year to set aside money to help to tackle deep-rooted diversity issues, many of which have persisted for years.
"One of the problems the school needs to address is that there is a distinction between Asian and Asian American, and a lot of the administration fails to see that, and they assume that by covering Asians, they cover Asian Americans as well," Weng said.
The goals and philosophy of departments also play a clear role in the nature of the curriculum. Ammons echoed Weng's concerns on a larger level and pointed to the infrastructures of various departments as another reason for the lack of race-focused courses.
"Departments are not inclined, by in large, to give up the way they've been dong things; when a faculty member leaves or retires, departments only tend to look for someone to replace the gap that person left," she said. "So, it takes vision, often times, from outside the department to make change."
There is a correlation between the number of professors of color at Tufts and the number of classes that focus on various minority races. The same idea, that the curriculum is not diverse enough, is being applied to the faculty.
While the nature of the interaction between these two factors is ambiguous, Ammons feels that hiring more diverse faculty members would help ease curriculum concerns.
"We need to hire some faculty with some expertise and that means that the administration must take a stand and make that a high priority, because that's where hiring is ultimately decided," she said.
The addition of race-focused courses is one of a number of recommendations made by the Task Force on Race, a body established several years ago to take a intricate look at problems with race throughout the University. Since the group reported its findings in 1997, many of its suggestions have come to fruition, while some have yet to see the light of day.
The creation of the Office of Diversity Education and Development, which monitors all faculty hiring and looks at affirmative action issues, was one direct result of the Task Force recommendations. The University also created an administrative response team to publicly address and respond to concerns involving campus racial problems, such as hate crimes.
These accomplishments, along the general status of the Task Force recommendations, are monitored by a permanent oversight panel.
"I think, by and large, we have been doing very well [following up on the Task Force's report]," said biology professor Francie Chew, the chair of the oversight panel. "There have been a lot of recommendations that have been implemented or are in the process of being implemented."
