(These are some remarks I'll give today for a panel on institutional change at the 3rd national Race and Pedagogy Conference, which is happening now where I teach, at the University of Puget Sound. This successful conference is the brain-child of Professor Dexter Gordon, Director of African American Studies and the Race and Pedagogy Initiative, and Professor Grace Livingston, who teaches in the program (as do I) and many, many collaborators.)
My main point of reference for this discussion is the
University of Puget Sound, where I’ve taught for many years, but the discussion
is really about the liberal arts college, as a model of higher education in
general, and diversity, not about Puget Sound per se.
I think that over the past decade and especially in recent
years, the discussion about liberal arts colleges and diversity has
shifted. I’ve observed a change in the
terms of the argument for diversity, from a kind of “it’s something we ought to
do/it’s our obligation” to “it’s a matter of survival.” In other words, the demographics have caught
up with liberal arts colleges, which haven’t adjusted quickly enough.
So one organizing principle of my ten essentials, which I’ll
distribute in a moment, is that a sense of obligation, progressive notions,
public relations, and so on, aren’t enough to push the change that needs to
occur.
A second organizing principle is that liberal arts colleges
probably have to be more self-critical as they re-examine their assumptions,
their ways of doing things, how they are perceived, and the rhetoric they use
to describe themselves. [refer to the
Whitman example].
Third and last, I’d like to say that some good things came of the
old model, which by and large sprang from a sense of noblesse oblige. Real changes in co-curricular programs,
curricula, defining academic and administrative positions, supporting conferences
like this have occurred over the last few decades at many if not most liberal
arts colleges. But that way of doing things has probably yielded all it can
yield, so that now some long-delayed fundamental change must occur. With that, . . . here is the list:
1. Think of
diversity as a necessity, not just “a
good thing.”
2. The Board
of Trustees/Regents (etc.) must regard diversity as a necessity.
3. Find out
who in the institution opposes diversity, and why, and be prepared to persuade
them otherwise or move ahead without them.
4. Find out
what students and parents of color, colleagues of color, and the local
community really think about your college and diversity.
5. Spend the
money.
6. Consider
the degree to which the college’s rhetoric about itself is exclusive or
insular.
7. Stop
rejecting “vocation-speak”; employment after college should be of primary
concern to liberal arts colleges, and it's connected to the concerns of all prospective college-students and it's of special concern arguably, to students from a variety of ethnic minorities.
(Recall that at least 5 of the original 7 liberal arts were what we
might call vocational: grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, and geometry, the
other 2 being music and astronomy.)
8. Achieve a critical mass of students and colleagues of
color ASAP. What constitutes a critical
mass? The students and colleagues of color, among others, will let you know.
Until then, carry on.
9. Find out
in what venues and circumstances students and colleagues of color are most
likely to be alienated and respond accordingly.
10. What are
you willing to change about the “liberal arts college” paradigm?
Hans Ostrom, Professor of African American Studies and English, University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, Washington USA
Some Sources:
[the list of the original 7 liberal arts can be found on numerous sites online]
“The Most Economically Diverse Liberal Arts Colleges,” The
Upshot, New York Times, Sept. 8, 2014.
David Leonhardt, “Top Colleges That Enroll Rich, Middle
Class, Poor,” New York Times, Sept. 8,
2014.
Katherine McClelland and Carol J. Auster, “Public Platitudes
and Hidden Tensions: Racial Climates at Predominantly White Liberal Arts
Colleges,” Journal of Higher Education
Vol. 61, No. 6, Nov. - Dec., 1990. 607-642.
