Students Praised for Ethnic Studies Report

Select administrators and faculty praised the initiative taken by students, currently majoring within the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race, who released a report on Monday outlining the state of the discipline at Columbia.

The report included various recommendations, such as departmental status for the center. It also claimed that Columbia is falling behind peer institutions in the field.

"I appreciate the work that students in ethnic studies have put into this report, and we will, of course, take their concerns seriously," Provost Alan Brinkley said in a written statement.

According to Assistant Director of CSER Pablo Piccato, several of the report's authors met yesterday with administrators and faculty, including Vice President for Arts and Science Nicholas Dirks, Dean of Columbia College Austin Quigley, Dean of Academic Affairs Kathryn Yatrakis, and CSER Director Claudio Lomnitz, to discuss the report and its recommendations.

Piccato, who also attended the meeting, said administrators agreed that they needed more time to analyze the report before commenting on its contents.

"It's really good to see students so engaged with the institution and so concerned about not only their own kind of study, but also the work of everyone in the University," Piccato said. "They're really committed to Columbia."

"I think it's an important document that I think documents very accurately the kinds of challenges we're facing both here and at Barnard," said Steven Gregory, director of the Institute for Research in African American studies.

While Gregory agreed with many of the recommendations the report made, he said that departmental status for IRAAS, as recommended in the report, was not a current priority.

"We have a whole other agenda that has to be addressed before we can even consider something that would so fundamentally change our structure," he said. "That includes hiring new faculty, increasing our course's offerings and continuing to do the kind of programming we've been doing to date."

Africana Studies director Kim Hall declined to comment on the report, which also recommended departmental status for that program.

"A lot of us have been working very hard to make some of these things happen, and they take time," Gregory said. "On the other hand, I think the substantive requests that the report outlines in increasing faculty, course offerings, and resources have always been things we've asked for and feel we need."

While Gregory said he found the report's citation of peer institutions' larger faculty and more numerous course offerings compelling, he said he did not think these were the only methods of judging the strength of the programs. "There is progress being made even though it may not be reflected in the size of the faculty in IRAAS at this moment or CSER's faculty at this moment," he said. "But certainly, in terms of resources, we seem to be lagging behind."