After working for several years toward the departmentalization of the University’s Ethnic Studies Program, students and faculty who have supported the movement finally have cause to celebrate.
In a phone conversation with former ASUO President and Ethnic Studies Coalition member Emily McLain, Senior Vice President and Provost Linda Brady revealed that she had approved the departmentalization of the ethnic studies program beginning in fall 2008.
McLain said the news is exciting to both faculty and students for a number of reasons. Before ethnic studies became a department, professors could not earn tenure in the program.
Professor Peggy Pascoe, a member of the Ethnic Studies Core II Faculty, said the outcome of this was “professors had to please two departments, which created an extra burden for what were often times young professors.”
McLain said that the resulting time constraints meant that the faculty were not able to offer enough classes for students to consistently fulfill graduation requirements on time.
“This will have such an effect on students because they will be able to have more classes that are available to them,” said McLain.
Years of work from both student groups and faculty contributed to Brady’s decision to departmentalize.
“The coalition of students really worked to make this happen,” said McLain. “We worked and engaged with the administration in a really positive way.”
Pascoe agreed.
“My impression is that the administrators that made the decision were also very moved by the student support,” she said.
Pascoe said that a proposal written by Ethnic Studies Program Director Michael Hames-Garcia and the Ethnic Studies Advising Committee to transform the program into a department also helped them gain approval.
She said the proposal highlighted “the patterns of ethnic studies departments all across the country, how many programs there were, where they were located, how they were configured – it was a terrific proposal.”
“We were one of the only (Association of American Universities) institutions to not have an ethnic studies department,” said McLain.
Donella-Elizabeth Alston, the ethnic studies office coordinator, said that everyone involved in the program has been very supportive of departmentalization efforts.
“We are absolutely thrilled,” said Alston. “It is really gratifying for those of us who have been in the department for a long time and have worked hard to get this together.”
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