Faculty Members Respond to Strike

Just as the hunger strike has divided student opinion and sparked a debate over institutional priorities, Columbia professors have also been weighing in on all sides of the discussion over the strikers’ demands and methods.

The coalition represented by the strikers has received support from several areas of the faculty. Last week, 14 professors from the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race issued a statement of solidarity with the hunger strikers, and Barnard College political science professor Dennis Dalton has been fasting since Nov. 8.

“We concur with the students’ sense that recent incidents at Columbia indicate the need to build, bolster, and strengthen the community’s investment in research, teaching and administrative practices that challenge racial, ethnic, gender and sexual hierarchies,” the CSER faculty said in the statement.

On Wednesday, the Columbia administration announced an agreement to fund the expansion of the Office of Multicultural Affairs and to convert the major cultures requirement from a lecture-style to seminar-type class. The curricular changes are contingent upon faculty approval.

Many professors agreed that students’ academic concerns were valid and even admirable. “It’s not trivial what they are asking for ... they want to build a better liberal arts education,” Middle East and Asian languages and cultures department professor George Saliba said.

“The fact that students are devoted to, involved with, and interested in the curriculum is a good thing,” said Kathryn Yatrakis, Columbia College dean of academic affairs.
Some faculty members expressed disagreement with the strikers’ demands regarding the proposed Manhattanville expansion.

“I think President Bollinger is doing the right thing in pursuing expansion into Manhattanville. The [current] space constraint over the long run will have negative consequences for Columbia’s ability to remain at the forefront,” sociology professor Thomas DiPrete said.

But many administrators and faculty members expressed surprise at the students’ decision to strike at this point in time.

“I’m a little confused as to what, on the academic side, prompted such an extreme measure at this time,” Yatrakis said. She cited pre-existing progress which was being made both in CSER and the Core Curriculum.

“The students’ strategy in this case was not as clearly thought through as it could have been,” history professor Alice Kessler-Harris said, adding that students could have better mobilized campus resources.

“From where I sat, it seemed as though things had, if not transformed themselves, at least improved,” Kessler-Harris said, referencing the same changes, including the hiring of CSER director Claudio Lomnitz last fall.

“The pace of change can seem glacial at times, but it’s not necessarily unresponsive,” Robbins said, remarking, as most professors did, that the slow-moving progress students see now is characteristic of all administrative development, but not necessarily a cause to strike.

Several professors said that the strike was evidence of a widening communications gap between faculty and students, and many said they had not known that students had arrived at such a level of discontent with the University.

“I was unaware that things had gotten so bad that people would put their health on the line,” English and comparative literature professor Bruce Robbins said. While none of the professors interviewed disagreed with the strikers’ calls to expand and strengthen CSER, they recognized significant changes made to the center in recent years.

Though Robbins said he appreciates the efforts of students, he said he believes that faculty must maintain its independence, regardless of student demands.

“It was a scandal that CSER was only brought into existence because students demanded it. The University should have foreseen the demand for it. Bravo to the students who pushed for it,” Robbins said. “At the same time, I don’t want students telling me what to teach. I think the weight of opinion of people with academic credentials is on the side of the students. If the opinions of the faculty were solicited more often, students would get what they want.”

Robbins also stated that nostalgic alumni often resist academic changes like those the strikers are calling for in the Core Curriculum, causing the institution to change slowly.
Vice Provost for Diversity Initiative Geraldine Downey said that while she agreed with the academic measures announced Wednesday, it was important that the hiring process was done in a measured way.

“We want to ensure that the faculty that we hire are excellent,” she said. “It’s not possible to decide on a time scale for hiring ahead of time. It takes a lot of time to identify excellent faculty and to hire them.”

“I think that it’s important to hear the students’ voices and for the students to participate in whatever units they’re part of, but I think everyone’s views need to be heard,” Downey added. “I think the collaboration with faculty is central for the goals to be achieved.”

Devika Bhushan contributed to this article.
Maria Insalaco can be reached at maria.insalaco@columbiaspectator.com.