Diversity

Students, faculty, and Native American scholars discussed introducing an indigenous studies program as part of Friday’s Faculty House workshop on the under-representation of Native Americans in Columbia’s curriculum and faculty.

With last week’s news that a prominent black professor was found guilty of academic plagiarism, Teachers College’s handling of race issues was thrust into the spotlight—and under the microscope—for the second time this year. As the school launches a new round of soul-searching, both students and faculty have said they feel that the TC administration does not adequately address or facilitate discussions about race issues.

Although the roughly 100 attendees at Friday night’s Black Alumni Council Heritage Award Reception were diverse in age, pride in both school and legacy gave them common ground to celebrate their peers and the announcement of the first chaired faculty position of African-American studies at Columbia.

There is no way in which we can fully embrace the diversity that surrounds us through censure and disapproval. It can only be embraced if we actively recognize all of our beliefs—including our own prejudices—and work for change.

Here at Columbia, as at most top universities, we enjoy belittling conservative beliefs. Even the professors are in on it, and conservatives often find their beliefs directly challenged by academic trickery, like thinking about things, and facts. But shouldn’t good pedagogy incorporate all sides of an issue?

A format and attendance policy of Barnard’s diversity program for first years which requires, among other things, students to guess the ethnicity of the person to their right, has drawn fire from some students.

Interim SEAS Dean Gerald Navratil focused on diversity and recent bias incidents in his first Fireside Chat in Carleton Lounge Monday night.

I have never concentrated so intently on the race issue as I have done in the past two years of my college experience.

Comparative ethnic studies is the study of power, and its locations and articulations around the axes of race and ethnicity, gender, sexuality, class, and nation. The field arose historically from the connections made by peoples of color in the U.S. with peoples of the Third World and their struggles against colonization and neo-colonization.

This year the Intercultural Resource Center (IRC) has expanded its residential component to include an extension in the Broadway residence hall called the Ethnic Studies Suite. The Ethnic Studies Suite is a partnership between the CC/SEAS Office of Multicultural Affairs, the CC/SEAS Office of Residential Life, and the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity.