(((SPEaK))) - Students Promoting Empowerment & Knowledge

The Ethnic Studies Manifesto
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We believe that Columbia University's recent commitment to the establishment of Asian American and Latino Studies Programs is shortsighted and naive. We call on the administrative and intellectual leadership of Columbia to acknowledge that the future development of curricular, theoretical, methodological, and practical contributions of Ethnic Studies can only be nurtured and sustained by the creation of a Department of Ethnic Studies.

There has been an irrefutable historical absence of these fields of study, a continued absence of other Ethnic Studies Programs (such as Native American Studies), and a record of non-hiring of faculty with such academic expertise at Columbia. Thus, we believe that the University must recognize the hostile academic terrain on which it will be placing these programs and expecting such scholars to enter. Only with departmental status can such fields of study be insured centrality in the curriculum. Only with departmental status can Columbia attract leading scholars in Ethnic Studies and ensure that the tenure of junior faculty will be evaluated by appropriate academic standards. Only a Department of Ethnic Studies will attract the generations of graduate students who embark on cutting edge research initiatives. Only a Department of Ethnic Studies can guarantee an academic space for the future establishment of Native American Studies. Only a Department of Ethnic Studies will place Columbia at the forefront of national academic leadership.

For almost thirty years, there has been substantially more production of scholarship in Ethnic Studies than perhaps in any other area of study. One needs only look at the titles being produced by major publishing houses. That more than 700 Ethnic Studies programs and departments exist nationwide should be one indication of its increasing centrality and vitality to a liberal arts education. Another indication is the critical mass of scholars that have emerged and will continue to emerge from such interdisciplinary areas of study, as well as from other disciplines with an expertise in some aspect of Ethnic Studies. Furthermore, Ethnic Studies has already captured the interest of academics from outside the United States. Increasingly, international scholars are seeking out Ethnic Studies as a course of study.

We call on our institution to take the leadership in this area as it has in others, and to create a solid and institutional home for Ethnic Studies--a Department of Ethnic Studies.

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Thus, at this time, we call for:

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I. The establishment of Department of Ethnic Studies within the School of Arts & Sciences by:

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A.
Convening interdisciplinary search committees by mid-March 1996, with attendant committees of student representatives, commissioned to hire the following three tenured faculty members whose qualifications include both academic expertise and administrative experience:
1. one senior professor; whose expertise is in Ethnic Studies, to develop and chair the Department;

2. one senior professor, whose expertise is in Asian American Studies, to develop and direct the Asian American Studies Program; and

3. one senior professor, whose expertise is in Latino Studies, to develop and direct the Latino Studies Program;

B.
Allocating to the Department four open faculty lines each in Latino Studies and Asian American Studies, a line each to be filled every subsequent academic year beginning in 1996, with at least two each of these positions to be filled by tenured faculty members;
C.
Allocating an annual departmental budget to cover all administrative costs and the employment of one full-time departmental administrative assistant, one full-time Latino Studies Program administrative assistant, one full-time Asian American Studies Program administrative assistant, and at least four work-study positions;
D.
Allocating an annual departmental budget for extracurricular programming (e.g., conferences, lectures);
E.
Allocating an annual departmental budget for library holdings in Ethnic Studies;
F.
Allocating an annual departmental budget to cover the costs of hosting a Visiting Professor per academic year;
G.
Designating an appropriate and accessible department site on the central Morningside Heights campus, this site to include a conference room; and
H.
Strengthening the Institute for Research in African American Studies by creating three additional lines, two to be filled by the 1996 academic year and one to be filled by the 1997 academic year, with at least two of these positions to be filled by tenured faculty members.
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II. The reconstitution of the so-called Core Curriculum, which supports white supremacy by way of a Eurocentric academic program, to significantly include philosophies, literature, music, and art of ancient African, Asian, Native American and other non-European peoples by:

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A.
Convening a committee, composed of faculty members and students, commissioned to critically assess the Core and to propose substantive structural changes to dismantle the Eurocentrism of the Core; and
B.
Replacing, by the 1996 academic year, the Major Cultures requirement with a selection of first-semester courses focusing on the past histories and societies of Africa, Asia, and the Americas, and with a selection of second-semester courses administered through the Department of Ethnic Studies and the Institute for Research in African American Studies: Introduction to Ethnic Studies / Introduction to Asian American Studies / Introduction to Latino Studies / Introduction to African American Studies.