Following two high-profile hate crimes, Teachers College found itself in the center of media crosshairs this semester. But long after the camera vans left, concerns about diversity and inclusiveness persist among students, faculty, and administrators.
Since TC Counseling and Clinical Psychology professors Madonna Constantine and Elizabeth Midlarsky were targeted with a noose and a swastika on their respective office doors, students condemned the hate crimes at two community-wide meetings organized by the TC administration.
Meanwhile, students have banded together in response to the incidents. TC Coalition for Social Justice, a student group, formed after it organized to protest the noose and organized sessions such as Open Mic Night and a Forum on Lynching. The Black Students Network held a second such forum, and the TC Jewish Association convened a press conference.
“I’m upset that our community has been exposed to such an unbelievably vile incident,” Constantine said.
Now, administrators and faculty are addressing a report composed of suggested changes such as increased recruiting of faculty and students of color, a core class addressing multiculturalism, community engagement, and more critical dialogue. TC continues to develop initiatives targeting diversity in place before the hate crimes spotlighted these issues—and administrators say enthusiasm is more robust.
Before and since the hate crimes occurred, students have noticed that some professors shy away from deep discussions about race, causing some to question TC students’, administrators’, and faculty’s commitment to upholding its mission statement: “Educational equity—a moral imperative for the 21st century.”
“Everyone knows that’s [equity] the thing we’re supposed to be talking about, but we’re not talking about it. And if we do ... it’s dealt with on a shallow level,” Shawn Maxam, TC, said.
For example, Maxam said, in the context of educational equity, a professor noted that black children are overrepresented in special-education classes. When someone tries to bring up the representation of students of color at TC, he said, the professor will end the conversation. “That’s the type of thing that wouldn’t be discussed,” he said. “If anybody who is a person of color tries to talk about it in a passionate way, they’re looked at as an angry black or angry brown person. People get tired of having to defend themselves.”
Maxam added that friends have told him that professors blanch when they tried to discuss race in the classroom. “They [professors] said ‘Yeah, your grade is going to be affected.’ Seriously.”
TC President Susan Fuhrman and Provost Thomas James e-mailed the TC community last week: “Teachers College has long been known for promoting understanding and tolerance and for educating the least advantaged members of society. It’s a reputation we’ve earned by walking the talk: equipping a new force of teachers in the late 19th century with the cultural insights to work with immigrant children.”
Like Maxam, Jondou Chen, TC, believes that some classes don’t critically discuss race.
“Too often we espouse a certain intellectual culture here ... where we push for objective, quantitative data, and we commune within this institution and speak as scientists and practitioners as if our world was under a microscope or in a petri dish.”
Students, faculty, and administrators have long argued that possible solutions include recruiting diverse students, recruiting and retaining tenure-track professors from a diverse pool, holding programs that foster community, consulting closely with students, and hiring more personnel to deal with diversity specifically. But in light of recent events, there is widespread sentiment that TC must use the recent hate crimes to galvanize a deeper soul searching.
“You may hire a more diverse faculty, but how does that change the direction of a college? You can have more spaces where people can talk—does that really change the ideology of people who are taught at the institution to then go out and spread notions of equity?” Maxam asked.
The administrators’ e-mail addressed the need for long-lasting action. “We’re committed to action, not just discussion; but we’re also committed to ensuring that the actions we take are neither knee-jerk attempts to mollify critics nor diversions from our central work of making a meaningful difference in the lives of real people, families and communities,” the e-mail read. “Instead, our goal is to directly engage—and in some instances, reengage—with the core mission of Teachers College.”
In 1999, a report addressing these issues resulted in the formation of the President’s Office for Community and Diversity, of which TC general counsel and professor Janice Robinson serves as executive director. CCD, a committee on which students, staff, faculty, and administrators sit, facilitates programming to increase acceptance of diversity. Robinson and the College Ombudsman use office hours to field students’ complaints.
Robinson said she plans to work with faculty, students, and staff to make changes systemic. “I am not here just to rubber stamp talking the talk.”
James said the administration is dealing with problems on many levels, taking care to consult with students about faculty recruitment. To increase diversity among faculty and other employees, TC has an affirmative action committee, and students are represented on faculty search committees. TC is also working to strengthen its connections with historically black colleges and institutions that enroll and employ large numbers of Latino students. “We’re trying to reach out not just with words but with opening institutional processes so that students can be involved in constructing the Teachers College they want.”
TC professor of counseling and clinical psychology Derald Wing Sue said systemic change will be most effective. Co-founder and first president of the Asian American Psychological Association, Sue is known best for his work on racial micro-aggressions—unintended slights or social cues by members of a dominant group that make members of minority groups uncomfortable.
“Our psychological studies indicate that it is racial micro-aggressions that have the most devastating impact on people of color, even more terrible than overt acts of conscious racism or hate crimes. The noose incident here was horrific,” Sue said. “But people of color are not so much scared of the white supremacist, or the Klan, or the skinheads. Their life is most affected by ordinary, well-intentioned decent individuals who are unaware that they are giving micro-aggressions.”
Sue said that many student anecdotes of discomfort in the classroom over racial issues stem from micro-aggressions.
Robinson stressed that TC’s initiatives addressing diversity occurred before the hate crimes, a fact that she said most people don’t realize. “The real facts are we’ve been working on this for several years. What the incidents have done is re-galvanize us, to continue the work and make sure that we continue to put these things into play.”
While students said they appreciate and enjoy Robinson’s work as CCD director, TC general counsel, and an assistant professor, she has too many jobs. “The fear I have is people say ‘Oh we have Janice, I don’t need to care about community and diversity,’” Chen said. At a town hall meeting, Fuhrman said TC is in the process of hiring Robinson an associate.
Chen commended the administration for holding informational programs about the noose, but said some of these events are preaching to the choir—as he noted, most administrators aside from Robinson did not attend. Regarding Sue's research, he said, “The researcher of researchers of color is questioned, it’s thought to be niche research, like, ‘Oh that’s cute, its by people of color.'"
Chen said that TC deals with race on a "deficit model." TC offers 32 classes that deal explicitly with multicultural issues. Robinson said she views diversity positively, citing a program TC ran last year called "promoting mutual respect and preventing workplace harassment program."
To extend this positive view, Robinson is working with Sue to compile a program that educates faculty departments about racial micro-aggressions. Robinson organized two lectures that Sue gave this semester called "Living in a White World." Such programs ran in the past, but garnered less attention at a time when hate crimes were not in the limelight. "Conversations occur in the classroom and sometimes faculty aren't able to manage those difficult experiences in the classroom well. We want to make sure the faculty are armed and ready and have enough tools and arrows in their quiver to be able to do that."
Nevertheless, Maxam noted that only about 10 percent of the school's 5500 students attended recent campus events, even after the hate crimes. "We were trying to do all these things before the noose, before the swastika. The response was tepid as best, but now the response is more robust. But if you allow us to go back to business as usual, like there is no sense of urgency, the administration doesn't have to be as robust in their response."
TC students are balkanized by nine academic departments, and partake in over 60 academic programs, making it hard for there to be a core class, Robinson said. But the faculty is scrutinizing the curriculum and considering a core class on diversity.
Joy Resmovits can be reached at joy.resmovits@columbiaspectator.com.