Task Force on Race has mixed achievements

Five years after the final report from the Task Force on Race, many of its initiatives still remain incomplete, although the University has seen forward movement towards some of its goals to improve diversity issues across campus.

An Oversight Panel was created after the completion of the Task Force on Race to oversee the administration's movements towards the goals outlined in the Task Force on Race's final report. Junior Julia Karol, a member of the Panel, said that while the University has made some movement in the right direction, there were still much more to do.

"It's not necessarily that the Task Force [on Race] has failed, it's just that some things are very hard for the administration to do," Karol said. She said that this year the Panel is focusing on the curriculum part of the Task Force on Race's recommendations, which has become an "area of concern" for them.

But Karol did clarify that curriculum is also one of the more difficult elements of the Task Force on Race's recommendations to change, since it involves hiring new professors, and trying to outline and define the position that the new professor would have within the University.

The latest Panel report from 2002 states that there is "definite progress" in curriculum diversity. Many of the other areas are showing improvement, according to the report. These areas range from increased support to student performance groups to student recourse procedures to the newly created bias response team.

However, there still needs to be more improvement in relation to a number of issues, especially with culture centers, which have not been granted additional financial support since 2000.

Where it seems the administration has fallen short is in regard to graduate students and faculty. The Panel states that there have been no increases in minority faculty or graduate students, or culture center involvement with academic departments.

Retaining minority faculty has been a problem for Tufts recently, with many calling for a safer, more welcoming environment. In a recent study, examining groups of faculty hired between 1991 and 1996, only 38 percent of Asian, Black and Hispanic professors remained, compared to 61 percent for Caucasian professors.

The Latino Curriculum Transformation project (LCT) has faced problems as well, with its curriculum transformation project, which has faced a shortage of funding needed to hire more professors. "They always make it seem like it's a matter of funding, but if they supported us, maybe it would be different," LCT member sophomore Juliana Zapata said.

The administration is often inconsistent in its curriculum decisions, according to Zapata, citing the fact that Native American courses and Africans in the New World count as cultural requirements, but Latino-American studies courses do not.

"Inconsistencies... make it seem like the administration to a certain extent turns their back on us," Zapata said

The Task Force on Race was formed in the fall of 1996 and analyzed race relations in the Tufts Community. Its final report, released in Feb. 1998, found inequalities in the cultural diversity of course offerings. The Task Force's recommendations included additional funding and resources to correct these inequalities, which senior Kelly Condit, a member of the Asian American Curriculum Transformation project (AACT), said has gone largely unheeded.

The report's authors would not be surprised that the diversity goals set forth by the Task Force on Race have not been accomplished. At the time of the original report, Co-Chair of the Task Force Anne Gardulski said, "I'm afraid people will think the report is a blueprint and say 'Here is the plan, let's go do it.' People have to realize things are not going to change this semester or probably for the next five years."

Condit described the situation as "frustrating," and has been working with Arts & Sciences Curriculum Committee student member sophomore Chike Aguh with proposals for new classes. Condit raised concerns that a new Task Force has begun even though the previous Task Force on Race's recommendations haven't been put into place.

While the AACT has had some notable success in the past two years, including the approval to hire a new tenure track professor in Asian American studies, members of the AACT have expressed dissatisfaction with the Task Force on Undergraduate Life's latest interim report, which did not address the expansion of Asian American or Latino programs.