Better late than never

Until recently, Native American studies has been a field that has garnered little interest at Columbia. But things have changed: The Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race is aiming to create a Native American studies major or concentration by 2010. The development of this field at Columbia is an exciting opportunity for both the University and its students to take leadership in an often-neglected field. To ensure the success of this program, CSER should work to create a curriculum that offers a wide variety of classes. Then, in order to allow students of every concentration an opportunity to partake in this opportunity, the Office of the Core Curriculum should approve these new classes for the recently updated Global Core requirement.

The approved Major Cultures course list, which applies to the classes of 2010 and 2011 and is currently being phased out, exemplifies the lack of attention to Native American studies in the past. While a wide variety of African and Asian Civilization courses were offered through Major Cultures, the Native American Civilization category boasted a laughable three courses. Fortunately, Columbia is working to remedy this. Spurred on by student interest, the offices of the Vice Provost for Diversity as well as the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race are working to hire new faculty and create more Native American studies courses. The program they envision will be particularly innovative because it will focus on the urban nature of contemporary Native American life and will also take an interdisciplinary approach to Native American studies.

The University’s efforts to improve Native American studies as well as its planned creation of a new major or concentration are commendable. Students would benefit from including Native American studies in their coursework, through either the Global Core requirement or electives. The Class of 2013 should also keep Native American studies in mind when selecting a major or concentration. In addition, to foster interest in this field among students, the Office of the Core should increase the number and variety of courses available to Native American studies concentrators or majors and add those courses to the approved Global Core list. Students will be far more likely to declare a major or concentration if they feel that there will be plenty of courses and options for them.

We applaud the Center of Race and Ethnicity for taking this important first step in promoting scholarship on this crucial field of study, and we look forward to further progress toward hopefully making Columbia a leader in Native American studies.