Dartmouth Ponders Ethnic Studies

By Alexander Wilson | Wednesday, April 8, 1998

Contained in the latest issue of Tick Talk, the official mouthpiece of the Student Assembly, is an endorsement of the formation of an Ethnic Studies program at Dartmouth. Tick Talk proclaimed the new Korean Studies program as a prototype for further ethnic studies programs.

Dartmouth's administration has greeted abstract suggestions of such a program with consistent and avowed favor over the years.

The support that individual faculty members have given to the Student Assembly's project suggests that the faculty is, additionally, in full support of such measures.

The evidenced support therefore, of administration, faculty, and the official student voice combine to suggest that ethnic studies will soon become a reality at Dartmouth.

Critics of institutionalized ethnic studies curricula have argued that such ideologies corrupt institutional intellectual legitimacy and poison campus debate.

Proponents have historically suggested that ethnic studies departments are necessary to relate the West's classical history to a new sort of American student.

While the Student Assembly's plans are abstract, it seems likely that curricular changes at Dartmouth will follow precedent patterns established at other universities — the establishment of separate departments, majors, and faculty for those studying the history of diverse American groups. The new Korean Studies department serves as a model.

Critics of ethnics studies curricula have suggested that such changes undermine the Western Canon, traditionally the basis of American collegiate studies. Proponents claim that body of literature irrelevant and exclusive.

The Student Assembly's exploration of ethnic studies programs began last spring.

At that time, an abstract resolution sponsoring Ethnic Studies introduced by Scott Jacobs '99 and Millie Cho '99 was unanimously accepted. Since then a special ad hoc Committee on Ethnic Studies has been charged with creating a curriculum comparing and analyzing different ethnicities.

This group, chaired by Jorge Miranda '01, has focused on finding current course offerings in line with their goals, building faculty support and increasing campus awareness of ethnic studies issues. In the first goal, if not the second two, they have been successful.

Miranda said, 'We've compiled a list of courses that already exist. There are courses out there. We're just trying to somehow bring them together, maybe not within a completely new department, but somehow more closely related then they currently are. There is a gap in the curriculum.'

The question of how ethnic studies would fit into the curriculum is one that SA has yet to answer. Miranda does not necessarily believe a new department is required, and Ethnic Studies is referred to in SA pronouncements as 'as interdisciplinary project that will include courses from a variety of departments...[and] will not only study the history of minority cultures in the United States, but will address the hardships that all immigrant groups have faced.'

The ambiguity of the program has made it more difficult for SA to garner support among the faculty. Some professors worry that Ethnic Studies will siphon off support from their own departments, especially departments like African-American Studies or Asian Studies, which are already teaching a section of the Ethnic Studies curriculum. While SA insists that Ethnic Studies is merely 'an attempt to continue their goal of enriching the education of Dartmouth students,' it is hard to see what logical role the program could have except as a substitute for the 'ethnic studies' departments already in existence.

Nevertheless, SA maintains that Ethnic Studies will not infringe on any other department. Miranda says, 'We are not advocating for the destruction, downscaling, or forced integration of any departments, instead we are simply calling for more courses and more emphasis placed on the need to study the relationships (not necessarily between each other) of different ethnic and religious groups throughout the history of the united states.'

Even among those who accept SA's explanations at face value there is debate on the utility of an Ethnic Studies program. The question has been raised that, if Ethnic Studies is not meant as a replacement, what use does it have?

With the courses already in existence, it is uncertain how useful it would be to have an overarching framework for them, instead of leaving them under their current departments. While this makes it impossible for a major or minor in Ethnic Studies to be pursued, or a requirement in it to be implemented, SA has yet to endorse either of these options anyway.

The current Ethnic Studies debate mirrors one that took place at Columbia University in 1996. A large group of students there demanded an Ethnic Studies program at the expense of the traditional Core Curriculum. The majority of faculty and students at Columbia rejected the proposals in favor of the current system.

At that time, James Mirollo, Parr Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia, rejected Ethnic Studies saying, 'The largest issue is 'What is a university?' There are those who think the university should be a mirror image of the world, and you can change the world by means of the university.

That is generally what will be considered the left opinion. It is also the fantasy of the left. The university is a very safe place to practice; the real world is much harder.'

Professor Mirollo preferred the Core Curriculum, and the educational base it provides all the students of an institution. He said, 'That's the whole educational notion behind the Core. Students gain a common experience which they can talk about, and this creates a good deal of intellectual excitement.'

On of the main reasons SA has chosen to champion Ethnic Studies is the increasing diversification of America. The explanation in Tick Talk is that 'The United States, with its extensive range of races, religions, and cultures is unlike any other nation.

Only through studying and analyzing our differences can we understand the nation in which we live.

Whether continuing our education in graduate school or moving on to pursue a career, it is crucial that each of us understand the different histories and struggles within the United States.'

In response to the movement away from core curricula towards distributive requirements and various 'Studies' programs, Dr. Steven Balch, President of the National Association of Scholars, said, 'We are preparing people at our leading institutions to go forth into the world and to be leaders. I don't think we can feel very secure in the realization that our future leaders, whatever walk of life they may happen to find themselves in, are not going to understand the fundamentals of their society and civilization.'

Dartmouth currently has a system of distributive requirements in which it is possible to graduate without taking a course dealing with classical Western society and culture.

It also supports departments of African-American Studies, Latin-American and Caribbean Studies, Asian Studies, Jewish Studies, Native American Studies, and Women's Studies and Korean Studies is soon to be added.

All of these departments operate in addition to numerous courses on ethnic subjects in traditional departments such as History and English. Those courses are to remain part of the curriculum along with the current Studies departments notwithstanding the new Ethnic Studies program.

It is unclear whether the implementation of an ethnic studies program will further erode the position of the Western Canon as a focus of the Dartmouth education. This claim has repeatedly been dismissed by ethnic studies supporters at the College and nationwide, but the danger is still thought to be real by many.

Ethnic Studies could be a part of the curriculum as early as next Fall.

Dartmouth Ponders Ethnic Studies

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