University to hire Asian American Studies professor

After a successful push by the Asian American Curriculum Transformation (AACT) project, the University has agreed to hire a professor of Asian American Studies.

"It's a huge step; it's a monumental step," said senior AACT member Laura Horwitz. "But, we won't see any progress until next year _ two years after the process began."

Whoever accepts this position will not be hired until fall of 2003 at the earliest. Then, because tenure is a lengthy and cumbersome process, Horowitz said it would take seven years until this person is able to become fully invested in campus activities and build alliances within departments.

"When they get here, they'll need to focus on themselves," she said.

Desire to create the position was sparked by the 1996 Task Force on Race's report and the lobbying efforts of the AACT. The report also suggested professors be encouraged to increase the level of Asian-American content in their courses _either in the creation of new courses or in modifications of existing ones.

"That element of the project is going well too," Inouye said.

The new professor will be a member of the English department who, along with Professor Jean Wu, will teach five or six classes a semester for Asian American studies. Currently, the University offers just two classes.

While students in the AACT are excited about the progress made, they remain skeptical of future commitments to the project. "I think there's a misconception that just because we got this position that we have now an Asian American program," Horwitz said.

Students are worried the focus on Asian American studies will be lost in the transition to other areas of the curriculum.

But Inouye does not foresee that occurring. "The Asian-American curriculum is always a concern and it will continue to be a concern." he said.

The Task Force on Race addressed the lack of culture classes offered at Tufts, finding shortages particularly in the areas of Asian American, Native American, and Latino/Latina studies in the spring of 1996. Six years later, with progress made in Asian American Studies, the University will shift its emphasis to Latino/Latina programs.

Many students are optimistic about the prognosis for both areas of study "This year, Latino transformation progress is starting and they're in a good place," senior AACT member Aaron Chiu said.

"People may say that the school has moved on from Asian-American issues to this. Ideally, they could grow together, build together and make it possible to have a whole new depth to study," he said.

Students sometimes question prioritizing the depth of one ethnic study over another. While administrators sympathize with these complaints, they explain that there are not enough resources to please everyone.

"As an Asian American myself, it's an odd feeling to look at the curriculum and not find much there that speaks to your experience," Inouye said. "But practically speaking, it is impossible to fill courses to everyone's background. Having one thing usually means not having another."

With both the recent Princeton Review ranking of Tufts _ as the seventh worse university for "poor race/class relations" _ and student initiatives, students are still demanding more diversity in the curriculum.

"We're behind Mt. Holyoke who has three Asian-American professors full-time and we're falling behind neighboring institutions like Columbia, Cornell and others who have majors in Asian American Studies," Chiu said.

"There are plenty of schools the administration compares itself with and it would be a nice program to have when these comparisons occur," he said.

Inouye was skeptical about the importance of such comparisons. "It's hard to measure perceptions," he said. Last year was difficult due to the administrative transitions, but the University is "actually doing much more than [it is given] credit for." Diversifying the curriculum affects the quality of college applicants, Inouye said.

It would be difficult to have a first-rate university that doesn't speak to the Asian American population, he said. "Places like MIT, Berkeley _ the very best universities _ they draw a lot of Asian-American students.