HDS Group Stages Preach-In For Diversity

Activists from the student group United Non-Discriminatory Initiative Against Equality (UNITED) held a church-style "preach-in" at Harvard Divinity School (HDS) yesterday, protesting what they view as a lack of diversity in the faculty and denouncing what they say has been an unresponsive administration on the issue.

UNITED was spurred to organize the preach-in in December when they heard that two of the school's few black faculty members, Allen D. Callahan and Preston Williams, were leaving.

While Williams has decided to remain at HDS, Callahan, who spoke at the protest, is leaving after this year because he was denied tenure, according to Roshan K. Anderson, a founding member of UNITED and a second-year HDS student.

"The root of the problematic culture which has plagued this academy has been its reluctance to hire and foster the tenureship of faculty members of color," said first-year HDS student Luis S. Hernandez Jr., also a founding member of UNITED, in opening remarks at the gathering, which was attended by close to 100 people.

Callahan preached that a diverse and open community will undoubtedly take time, but challenged the audience to actively move toward the greater diversity they envision.

"I know the word 'wait' is one of those four-letter words in the Bible," Callahan said. "Sometimes we'll have to wait before we can move...'Move' is another one of those four-letter words in the Bible."

He said God would give them power eventually, and added they should have the patience Jesus had until Christianity was accepted.

But he concluded with the hopeful message that the wait would not be long.

"How long will it take to truly diversify this faculty, not just with revolving-door faculty?" Callahan asked. He then answered "not long," and the crowd shouted their agreement.

After loud applause and a hymn, some students stood up to voice their support for the movement for greater diversity at HDS. A Latino man and a black woman read poems they had written about minorities' struggles, including one entitled "Mr. and Mrs. White Guilt."

Participants in the preach-in said the lack of diversity in both faculty and curriculum detracted from their education.

"As a white man, [the lack of diversity in the faculty] reinforces a false belief of superiority and keeps us at a place where the only scholarship works off a concept of white supremacy," said Ian W. Maher, a first-year divinity student. "[If nothing changes] I become a minister who was schooled in the idea white is right and I perpetuate the cycle of segregation in American churches."

UNITED members met with Dean J. Bryan Hehir at the beginning of the fall semester asking him to support their mission.

"The dean essentially refused to make a statement about diversity," Anderson said. "We'll be here until diversity becomes important to the administration too."

Callahan said the University has a record of ignoring the issue of diversity and reinforcing white superiority.

"You want to strike a blow against racism," Callahan said. "[Harvard professors] invented scientific racism."

But UNITED members said they will not give up.

"In order to move into a new age, Harvard University must diversify its faculty, its currency and the entire ethos of the community," said Erik J. Williams, a founding member of UNITED. "We will not stop, we will not rest 'til we are done."

The preach-in is the latest of UNITED's events aiming to raise awareness about what they view as a lack of general diversity at HDS. The group, which also wants to create a "Multi-Cultural Studies" program and bring added focus to race, class and gender issues in the school's curriculum, previously handed out statistics on the numbers of minority and female faculty in HDS and held a community meeting.