Emerging Program Looks to Expand

As human rights violations occur worldwide, Columbia’s Human Rights Program is fighting for the right to exist.

Saturday afternoon, a panel of students and faculty discussed the future of the Human Rights Program at Columbia in Earl Hall’s Schiff Room as part of a campaign aimed at garnering more recognition and funding for the initiative. With student interest at an all-time high, the tiny program finds itself at a crossroads—either expand to meet student demand, perhaps offering human rights as a major and creating a fully staffed academic department, or remain static and continue to offer human rights only as a concentration.

While students and faculty differed on the course the program should take, all agreed that the human rights department, which currently consists of just two adjunct professors, lacks the funds and resources it needs to meet the recent upsurge in student interest.

“If you ever say you want to create a human rights department, you will be nuked,” said Professor Andrew Nathan, a member of the Interdepartmental Committee on Human Rights. “Departments cost millions and millions to run.”

Though Nathan cautioned against reaching too far too soon, he maintained that incremental progress can and should be made to expand the scope of the program.

“The current VP loves interdisciplinary programs,” Nathan said. “As long as we can assure the administration that we can pack a real interdisciplinary bang for a relatively small buck, we will not be lacking funds.”

“I’m interested in making human rights a combined major with other programs,” said Emily Setton, CC ’08, who is spearheading a student initiative to have human rights recognized as a major by the administration. “I feel like the Human Rights Program deserves more attention, and part of that is asking for more funding.”

Though almost all in attendance echoed Setton’s funding concerns, not everyone agreed that it should be recognized as a major. Professor J. Paul Martin, coordinator of the Center for the Study of Human Rights, was somewhat skeptical over whether the discipline could prove a viable major.

“There are economic concerns at stake here,” said Martin. “It’s easy to get excited and say, ‘A degree in human rights, rah rah rah!’ But what about a job?”

Martin also expressed uncertainty as to whether human rights could constitute a major.

“Because human rights is interdisciplinary, there is definitely a question of quality control here,” Martin said in a phone interview prior to the Saturday forum.

Though Martin expressed strong doubts, he suggested that a human rights major could be viable if anchored in several departments. In other words, if the Human Rights Program would draw upon the resources of the history, political science and philosophy departments, then, without any substantial increase in funding, human rights could become a major.

Sue Nahm, a graduate student and administrator of the undergraduate Human Rights Program, stated that even though human rights works better on the graduate level, an undergraduate program is also important. She maintained that human rights has a positive impact on the academic community, helping to raise student awareness on issues of international import.