A Letter to the Editor ...
Reading, Writing, Racism
The University at Albany Anti-Racism Consortium, an informally organized group of English Department faculty, sponsored a "Teach In/Speak Out" in March, 1997, featuring talks by M. Jacqui Alexander and Colia Clark. Campus flyers stated that Alexander's "courses are grounded in feminist critiques of imperialism, colonization and heterosexuality."
While we expect college campuses to be places where unusual perspectives can be heard, two aspects of this "Teach In" were noteworthy. First, flyers stated that Alexander's presentation was "supported by the College of Arts and Sciences." Second, attendance was mandatory for students in some English classes.
Those who saw the publicity might reasonably infer that the Anti-Racism Consortium is being funded by the College. Students who were required to attend might well presume that the University and their instructors are sympathetic to the views presented.
Both speakers stated that they would like to bring back 1960's style activism. Alexander related that after she learned that her three-year contract would not be renewed by the New School for Social Research, she charged the New School with racism, mostly on the grounds that the maintenance staff is largely minority, while the faculty is almost entirely white. The other speaker, Colia Clark, described Chairman Mao as the "greatest revolutionary who ever lived." Clark regretted that no one seemed to remember the Black Panthers and stated that the FBI murdered 2000 Black Panthers. For her the War on Poverty was really a "war on the poor" that was deliberately designed to fail.
Upon inquiry I discovered that the publicized claim that the College was "supporting" Alexander and the Anti-Racism Consortium was at best seriously misleading. What seems to have happened is that two departments (Women's Studies and Africana Studies) received grants from the College of Arts and Sciences, which they used in part to bring Alexander to campus. The Anti-Racism Consortium took advantage of Alexander's presence to create the "Teach In," and then (without authorization) credited the College with "supporting" her presentation. But the College did not give funds to the Anti-Racism Consortium, and did not make the decision to invite Alexander to campus. (My efforts to learn more about the College grant have so far been unsuccessful.)
The second issue, the propriety of organizing English classes around politicized issues like racism, is national in scope. The University of Texas in 1990 considered "Writing About Difference" as the theme of a required remedial English course. The proposed text depicted American universities as enclaves of unremitting racism, sexism and homophobia. The Texas proposal was modified mainly because of off-campus pressures, but courses similar to the one proposed now exist at other universities.
Malcolm J. Sherman
Department of Mathematics
Editor's Note: According to Cy Knoblauch, Interim Dean of the the College of Arts and Sciences, "the College supports intellectual inquiry and the free exchange of scholarly views, without prejudice, across the disciplines, and for that reason does not single out particular events for formal recognition." He recently referred the question concerning the propriety of claims of College support in the local advertising of meetings and speakers to the Faculty Council for its deliberation.
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Snapshots from the end of a year ...
President Hitchcock joined 150 University faculty, staff and students for the first-ever Spring Clean-Up Day on April 25.
Assemblyman Steven Englebright sits with Margaret Stewart, director of the Biodiversity, Conservation and Policy Program, after deliversing the Paul C. Lemon Lecture on April 17.
Celebrating the University at Albany Foundation's Citizen Laureate Awards on April 26 in Saratoga were, l. to r., R. Guy Chamberlin, selection committee chair; the Hon. John E. Holt-Harris, Jr. Esq., Community Laureate; President Hitchcock; Michael Picotte, of the Picotte Family Community Laureates; Roland W. Schmitt, Academic Laureate; and Damiel J. Hogarty, Jr., dinner committee chair.
The fountains go on and the students jump in as an annual rite of Spring, Fountain Day, is celebrated on April 30.