Culture option debate remains heated

Faculty are scheduled to vote this January to determine whether courses in Asian-American and Latino culture will fulfill the University's culture requirement.

Faculty were supposed to vote on the issue at meetings last month and this month, but voting was postponed.

Proponents of the change say that it is required out of fairness: currently, courses in Native American and African-American culture fulfill the option, while Asian-American and Latino courses do not.

The culture option is part of the language-culture foundation requirement for all Liberal Arts undergraduates. After completing three semesters of a foreign language, students can complete another three foreign language courses or enroll in three culture classes focused on a non-Anglo culture.

The Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate passed a resolution last month in favor of counting Latino and Asian-American courses towards the culture requirement.

But while the Senate has taken a stance, faculty, who will ultimately make the decision, remain divided on the issue.

The Faculty Curriculum Committee is proposing that the University make its culture option "internally consistent and meet the stated criteria in the current Tufts bulletin," committee member and biology professor Frances Chew said. "As a member of the Curriculum Committee, I voted in favor of the proposal, and I support it."

But Japanese Professor and former Dean of the Colleges Charles Inouye is adamantly opposed to the proposed changes to the University culture option. He said the Japanese department is also against the proposal.

"There are a number of reasons why I think it's a bad idea," he said. "I'm for the study of these cultures, but I can't make the argument that the particular category they belong in is appropriate for the foreign culture option."

Inouye explained that he is not a Japanese writer, but an American writer who happens to be of partial Japanese descent. "So for people to label me as foreign, I object to that," he said.

Inouye objects to the culture requirement altogether and added that the University's emphasis on foreign language "has been a defining aspect of the Tufts community, and it needs to be strengthened rather than weakened."

In the 1960s, faculty proposed that the University allow students -- particularly those who have trouble learning foreign languages -- to take non-language courses to fulfill that requirement. Options like Judaic studies, African-American studies, and Native-American studies were created for this purpose.

"[These courses] aren't really foreign," Inouye said. "There's no language involved. If there is something about Judaic studies that is removed from American culture and related to the Hebrew language, then it counts. Courses on hip-hop in African-American culture should not count."

According to Chew, the Curriculum Committee has discussed the proposal with representatives from the academic review board and the various language departments.

Senior Cecilia Chen, an American Studies major, would like Asian-American and Latino courses to count towards the culture option.

"I cannot speak for every person, but I can say this: the inclusion of Asian-American and [Latino] courses as part of the culture option is simply an issue of equality," Chen said. "The fact that [these courses] do not fulfill this requirement, while Native-American, African-American, Jewish-American, and deaf culture classes do, is an exclusionary and discriminatory policy."

Inouye suggested an alternate solution that may address some of Chen's complaints.

"People who do American Studies, especially ethnic studies, want to have this [proposal] validated, and I don't blame them," Inouye said. "What I propose is to take the world civilizations requirement and split it into Western and non-Western requirements, which would allow classes like Asian and Latin-American studies to count."

Chew said the changes she advocates should be only the first step in curriculum change. "The present proposal does not address a larger issue which the faculty has dismissed for some time, but has yet to come unanswered -- which is, what should happen to the foreign language requirement and culture option, as well as other requirements for Tufts degrees," she said.

Chew said that faculty who vote against the proposed changes would be supporting "the exclusion, discrimination, and disparate treatment" of Asian-American and Latino students, culture, and curriculum.

If the proposal is passed in January, senior senator and supporter Noris Chavarria expected the changes to be reflected quickly. "Classes in Asian and Latin-American studies would start to count toward the culture option probably as soon as the voting has taken place and the academic review board has passed it," he said.