Adopt Diversity Proposal

Ironically, as reading period begins for undergraduates, several key University officials have just received a healthy amount of reading material. On Monday, students from the Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations distributed a “Diversity Package” to University President Lawrence H. Summers and Dean of Faculty of Arts and Sciences Jeremy R. Knowles, among others. The package presents a four-point initiative aimed at promoting diversity on campus. These recommendations should be adopted by the University as positive, feasible steps towards integrating meaningful diversity programs into campus life—and also as the prelude to an ethnic studies department.

The most substantial recommendation proposes a Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity, where four professors—one each in Native American, Asian American, Latino and Comparative Race and Ethnic Studies—would serve as chairs. The center would coordinate the University’s programs that relate to ethnic studies, and it would also be an ideal base for a broad ethnic studies department.

As ethnic studies attracts more student interest and institutional resources, this center could be the base from which more specific ethnic studies departments would branch out—and the four professorial chairs would be a solid start to attracting more quality faculty in these areas. Students deserve the highest quality academics to lead this center, and Harvard should conduct a deliberate and thorough search to find the most excellent professors to appoint.

Along with this academic initiative, the report makes forward-thinking recommendations to alleviate the space crunch for student groups. It calls for an immediate increase in student office and storage space and proposes an eventual student center at the Inn at Harvard—which has a prime campus location and reverts to University control in 2013. This prospective meeting area would provide much-needed space for ethnic and cultural groups as well as other College student groups, not to mention the fact that it would finally establish a campus space where students would be able to congregate and socialize.

Coupled with these more formal proposals, the report also suggests House-based race initiatives as a way of informally providing students, tutors and Faculty with increased awareness of ethnicity. As a recent Crimson survey found that more people interact with those of other races in the Houses than anywhere else, initiatives like these have a great deal of promise. The recommendation seeks to strengthen and elucidate the role of each House’s race relations tutor. Many Houses already have successful pre-med, business awareness and sexuality issue tutors who, via House events, call attention to their interests. Likewise, the race relations tutor should have a more clearly defined role, as well as the willingness to effectively garner awareness and interest of each House in ethnicity issues.

The recommendations appear to be well thought out, feasible and effective means of raising awareness of race and ethnicity through several different channels. As students are studying their coursepacks this week, University administrators should be studying the Diversity Package—and they should implement its main proposals without delay.