Dear Editor,
I would like to respond to the article "Student activists bring what they learn in the classroom into campus policy" from Oct. 5, 2011. In the discussion of the 2011 April Open House action, the author misrepresents the goals of students involved and gives the false impression that Dean Berger-Sweeney's new proposal for a program relating to comparative race and ethnicity was created as a direct response to their wishes. As a participant in that action, I hope to explain our aims, as I perceived them.
The students who were involved in April Open House were not asking for an "overhaul of the university's approach to incorporating the study of race and ethnicity in its academic structure" but instead hoped to send a message to the Africana Studies Task Force in support of the creation of an Africana studies department, among other goals. An Africana studies department would not completely overhaul Tufts curricula related to race and ethnicity because Africana studies is not race studies, black studies or African-American studies, but instead provides a lens to view a variety of disciplines, such as economics, literature and philosophy, through the unique experience of the global African Diaspora.
The proposal that Dean Berger-Sweeney released this fall does not provide this. Instead, it would place Africana studies under an umbrella that would also contain such varied fields as Latino/a studies, Asian-American studies, Judaic studies and perhaps even queer and gender studies. This grouping of identities does not create a place for in-depth and serious study of a unique field, namely, Africana Studies. Many students involved last April, myself included, are unhappy with this proposal, and do not feel that Dean Berger-Sweeney listened to what changes we would like to see in the university curriculum. While I appreciate the attention paid to student activism on campus, I don't believe the Daily accurately represented this particular action. I also don't believe that Dean Berger-Sweeney's proposal will fix problems in the curricula. It is rarely the case that change comes easily or in such a short time. For many students involved in the April Open House, Dean Berger-Sweeney didn't seem to hear the chorus of voices calling for Africana studies after all.
Sincerely,
Josephine Herman
Class of 2013
