April 4 marked the 40th anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. This date reminds us that we should not remember just him but those before and after him who fought and are still fighting for social change. Now – in a time when this country has the possibility of its first woman or person of color as president – it is a time to reflect on how far (or not so far) we have come. I’m taking this time to challenge the University of Oregon, its administration, its faculty, and its students to embrace the goals of the students who are demanding ethnic studies become a department.
We have heard the words of Dr. Greg Vincent (former Vice Provost for Institutional Equity and Diversity), Dr. Charles Martinez (current VPIED), and President Dave Frohnmayer about how the University values diversity. The University has always made “promises” and “commitments” to make diversity a priority. It is there in its mission statement; it is there in the settlement of the discrimination lawsuit by Joe Wade in 2002; it was there in the original ambitious diversity plan; and it is there in the watered-down current plan. While I do not want to dismiss the faculty, staff and students who put in numerous hours hammering out the last version of the diversity plan, in the end – because of conservative backlash and administrative hesitancy – it has no accountability, no timeline, no resources allocated and no breadth or depth in understanding what diversity means.
Departmentalization for ethnic studies will address many of the six major goals of the diversity plan. It means building a critical mass of faculty of color on campus; it means fostering a culturally responsive community; it means developing and reinforcing diversity infrastructures; it means more dialogue and critical engagement with issues of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality and class, which improves campus climate; it means knowledge and growth; and for many students, staff, and faculty of color on campus, it means retention.
Last month, a group of students confronted Wendy Larson, the outgoing dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, regarding her lack of support for ethnic studies specifically and diversity in general. In the best moments of the meeting, the students were given excuses and antagonized. In the worst moments, they were given lies and insulted. It is time that University of Oregon moved beyond this kind of inaction. The students pushing for the departmentalization of ethnic studies have presented a cogent case that is at once impassioned, but also rational. Now it is time for the University to meet the challenge of students and to take action so that its own promises might be realized.
Without action, there is only idle chatter. And without reflection, there is merely empty action. The University has had its time to reflect. I hope that reflection will not be for nothing. I hope it will lead to an ethnic studies department.
Kit Myers
UO alumnus and a graduate student in Ethnic Studies at the University of California, San Diego