Word: americanizing
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...attract are established in a certain field and want to maintain a connection with that field," he notes. Because of this problem, the executive committee may offer candidates joint appointments. But some Afro-Am faculty say that desire for joint appointments indicates a disturbing lack of commitment to Afro-American Studies. Benjamin says, "A wholesale commitment to the department is necessary--many people seem to feel that being allied with another department gives them a legitimacy. There are many black scholars who have yet to come to terms with the legitimacy of Afro-American Studies as an intellectual discipline...
...department's growing pains persisted last year, as a student campaign mounted protesting what some viewed as deliberate administration attempts to weaken the department. Students held a number of demonstrations and rallies for the "strengthening of the Afro-American Studies Department," culminating in a day-long boycott of classes held last May. Student protestors claimed that Harvard has dawdled in its faculty recruitment, deprived the department of adequate funding and is planning to demote it to an interdisciplinary committee without power to tenure or to determine its own curriculum...
Josephine Wright and Harrington Benjamin, assistant professors of Afro-American Studies, declined to comment on Southern's resignation last week...
...University's poor performance in strengthening Afro-Am over the last decade as proof of its intent to undermine the department. The creation of an executive committee doesn't assuage these students' fears. "I don't see anyone on the committee who is a real ally of Afro-American Studies," Brutus says. "These people have a mainstream perspective," he adds. And Daniel Robinson '79, a former concentrator, says, "I am skeptical--let me see the results. They've set up committees before...
Neither Ferguson nor other committee members believe these problems of tenure and possible confrontation to be insurmountable. Committee members say that they believe in the legitimacy and intellectual excitement of Afro-American Studies, and want to make sure other Harvard community members think so, too. Although efforts to help Afro-Am have a long history of failure, they remain confident. "This really is a last ditch effort--if this doesn't work, nothing will," Patterson says. Rosovsky and the rest of the committee are laying cautious odds that it will, but this year should prove a crucial test of that...