To: |
The Wellesley College Community |
From: |
Diana Chapman Walsh |
Subject: |
Multiculturalism and Educational Excellence |
Date: |
16 April 1998 |
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1. A Vision of An Inclusive Multicultural Community At Wellesley College | |
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As a college dedicated to preparing students of all backgrounds to function as powerful women in an increasingly global society, Wellesley's commitment to multiculturalism is solid and secure. I want to clarify the relationship between our mission of educational excellence and our commitment to multiculturalism. I'm writing at greater length than usual because of the complexity and salience of the topic -- on our campus and across the country -- and in hopes of stimulating thought and ongoing dialogue within the College.
Through the concerted efforts of many people at Wellesley for many years, the College has made substantial progress meeting the challenges of demographic and cultural changes in the United States. We have experienced significant transformations in America's collective consciousness of our ethnic, racial and economic diversity, our historic blunders and tragedies, their ongoing legacies of inequality, and, most urgently, what needs to be done to produce "liberty and justice for all." This is a daunting challenge, as was pointed out by the Ad Hoc Working Group on Race and Diversity in its report issued last spring. "The problems of constructing viable multiracial and multiethnic communities," the report stated, "are among the outstanding intellectual, political, and ethical challenges of the postmodern period that engages the time and attention of the College's finest teachers and scholars."
Wellesley College is a more heterogeneous community than most other institutions of our kind, and of that we are justifiably proud. We know, too, that much difficult work remains to be done if we are to become a truly pluralistic community dedicated to the highest standards of teaching and scholarship to prepare women of all races, classes, national origins, and cultures to make a difference in the world.
Wellesley College's recent history has included occasionally heightened conflict about diversity, racism, and multiculturalism. These dramatic events take place against a backdrop of largely unheralded, yet resolute efforts to sustain an inclusive community unambiguously devoted to educational excellence. I won't take space here to review those efforts, but I do want to emphasize at the outset that the commitment and energy to productively address issues of racism and diversity provide a strong foundation on which to build.
As we build, our plans will require the following elements:
1. A Vision of an Inclusive Multicultural Community at Wellesley College
First, we need a shared vision and that may be the hardest step, owing to the multiplicity of voices we bring to this college. One of the most challenging tasks of a president is to listen to all those voices, harmonize them as best she can (with one another and with voices of the past and future) and speak on behalf of the institution as a whole.
The kind of inclusive multicultural community I believe we aspire to be is one in which everyone can feel a legitimate sense of ownership and all can be secure in the knowledge that they will be respected for who they are, judged, in Dr. King's unforgettable words, not by the color of their skin or outward appearance but by the content of their character. All constituencies and subgroups in this community will belong to it, feel welcome here, and share equally the responsibility for ensuring that we are doing our best to produce educational excellence.
We will remain committed to diversifying our ranks at every level
of the organization and to examining as honestly as we can where our
rhetoric about pluralism and inclusiveness may deviate from our
reality, where our practices may be defeating our principles and how
we can close the gaps. And we will make every effort to take
advantage of the many opportunities available in our college to
explore our differences and discover our commonalities so that all of
us may emerge with stronger, more complex understandings of ourselves
and our societies.
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Our educational excellence depends on our commitment to pursue knowledge and scholarship with unrelenting integrity and without fear. Wellesley College is founded on the conviction that liberally-educated women can make a better world, one built on intellectual analysis and understanding, combined with respect, compassion, and trust.
An excellent liberal arts education fosters flexible intellectual skills; critical habits of mind; respect for history and appreciation of beauty; tolerance, civility and empathy; and a spirit of responsible stewardship for future generations. Students who come to Wellesley should find themselves in a community in which knowledge is acquired as part of the life-long process of intellectual inquiry, moral engagement, and social responsibility.
At the threshold of the 21st century, American colleges and universities must determine how to conserve their commitments to learning and scholarship and how to sustain collaboration and participation in a commonly shared culture as market capitalism, increasing inequality, and a degrading global environment foster increasingly polarized debates about diversity, multiculturalism and affirmative action.
Some of the emotional charge in debates about diversity and multiculturalism stems from the only barely masked political economy underlying the conflict. Some additional emotional charge derives from conceptual complexity and linguistic inadequacies. This is a field in which even well-intentioned people often find themselves speaking at cross purposes and not being heard. Ambiguity sidesteps conflict but it can also mask deeper agreement; confusion interferes with effective dialogue. Greater clarity and more consistent use of terms, although no panacea, may help dissipate some of the political heat. In any case, clear policy making and leadership require a common language and an intellectual framework within which to work. First, the terms "diversity" and "multiculturalism" can be clarified. Viewpoint Diversity in the Academy
Diversity is integral to our educational mission. Justice Powell, in the Bakke case, connected the diversity of opinions and ideas ("viewpoint diversity") -- a self-evident precondition for educational vitality -- to the state's (and educators') substantial interest in racial and ethnic diversity. Because group identities serve as imprecise but nonetheless telling influences on an individual's viewpoint, racial and ethnic variety contributes to the "total educational environment of an institution, as well as to the education of all its members." Diversity is therefore enhanced by but not limited to the racial and ethnic categories used in mandatory federal survey reports.
Viewpoint diversity is, however, a broader category than racial and ethnic heterogeneity. Viewpoint diversity, in this broader sense, encompasses ideas, methodologies, disciplines, analytic frameworks, and ways of seeing and knowing; it is long ago as well as far away; it includes the distinctive ways of asking questions and seeking answers in the arts, humanities, social sciences, and sciences; it involves the whole range of aptitudes and interests (both intellectual and extra-curricular) we assess when we admit students and when we recruit colleagues.
The independent and mutual contribution of viewpoint diversity and racial and ethnic diversity to the education of all students justifies our support for diversity. The broader focus on viewpoint diversity does not diminish the significance of race and racism, past and current discrimination, the historic under-representation of racial and ethnic minorities, or the benefits that inclusion brings to individuals from a whole variety of under-represented groups. It does shift the argument to the educational benefits available to all members of the College community through effective policies of inclusiveness. Emphasis on the benefits of inclusiveness to the educational mission of the College and all its members can help diminish our tendency to sort ourselves into increasingly problematic essentialist camps.
This shift in emphasis -- from a historically-based case for diversity justified as remedy for past exclusion to one that looks forward to a challenging educational environment for everyone -- suggests a second shift in the more general argument about diversity in the academy. Policies of inclusiveness provide great benefit to the society at large: increasing the total pool of educated workers and citizens, enhancing individual and collective capacities to operate within a global environment, facilitating more effective interaction among colleagues and neighbors from diverse experiences and perspectives.
A commitment to multiculturalism implies a commitment as well to global education, defined in the recent report of the Global Education Advisory Committee as "the ensemble of the intellectual, curricular, co- and extra-curricular, technological, and administrative activities that are necessary if we wish to make sure that Wellesley College can give our students an education that will in fact prepare them "to make a difference in the world."
The Term "Multiculturalism"
But, for now, how do we understand the concept "multiculturalism," and its relationship to diversity? First, the term is probably not the one we would select today to describe what we are seeking to accomplish. A debate on multiculturalism, published in The Black Scholar, identified divergent uses to which the term has been put, and highlighted objections to it:
It's tempting to jettison a term so mired in polemics and confusion, but there are good reasons to preserve the concept at Wellesley College, while clarifying its use. First, our local debates are conditioned (both constrained and enabled) by their context and prior taxonomies, as well as by the broader national debate. On the one hand (as we learned during discussions of the multicultural requirement) we can't seem to escape the term, even when we try; on the other, we do want to affirm and claim the positive legacy of specific programs and statements of purpose that have fruitfully employed the term and moved us forward.
Second, and more affirmatively, when modified and augmented, the term multiculturalism can help crystallize useful understandings:
There are two other, practical, advantages to the term
multiculturalism:
Conceptual clarification will never inoculate us against expressions
of confusion or resentment, but it should make it somewhat easier to
respond forcefully and to pursue common objectives. In addition, the
exercise in conceptual mapping helps frame more specific policy.
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Implementation strategies and policy initiatives follow from these definitions and distinctions. In designing and implementing policy, we should emphasize the contribution of diversity -- viewpoint diversity, ethnic and racial diversity, cultural diversity -- to the education of our students (for their development as citizens and women who will make a difference in the world) and to the overall intellectual vitality and excellence of the College.
To advance multiculturalism at Wellesley College we will need to:
Recruitment, Hiring, Retention and Advancement
Although each segment of the College's work force presents specific challenges, it seems right to start with consistent premises that apply across the board to the faculty, administrative staff, and unionized work force:
Wellesley College's recent history suggests that special initiatives do work: among hires in the initial five-year period in which target of opportunity programs and one-in-three guidelines were in effect (starting in 1989) 39% of new tenure-track hires were minorities. Although we have had insufficient time to track the career paths of all post-1989 hires, as of last semester 33% of the tenure-track faculty and 11.6% of the tenured faculty is minority as defined by the federal EEO classification system.
We have adopted revised "guidelines for recruitment and outreach in tenure-track appointments" and a "faculty search plan" (which drew on search plans for staff hiring developed by the Office of Human Resources). This is now being used as a model for hiring in all segments of the College work force. In particular, recent modifications -- to include meetings between department chairs and the Dean or Associate Dean of the College responsible for a given search before short lists of candidates are finalized -- provide a clear mechanism for direct senior staff involvement and leadership.
In the annual review of departments' applications for tenure-track positions, the Office of the Dean of the College has been particularly interested in requests for appointments that would enhance teaching and learning of multicultural material, broadly defined. This interest pertains to the new faculty member's areas of scholarly or teaching expertise, not to his or her racial or ethnic identity. In addition, we have adopted the recommendations from last year's co-chairs of the Committee on Minority Recruitment, Hiring, and Retention that the College continue and fortify the minority scholar-in-residence program and the mentoring of minority faculty.
Multiculturalism in the Curriculum
Effective faculty hiring and retention will go a long way toward enhancing multiculturalism in the curriculum. An analysis conducted by the Global Education Advisory Committee indicated that of 121 tenure-track faculty hired between 1987 and 1997, 42 (35%) were "global and multicultural hires."
In addition, programs introduced two years ago -- support for new or modified courses and the student multicultural research program -- provide positive incentives for interested faculty and students to advance multiculturalism. Support for these programs will continue, with stewardship from the Office of the Dean of the College and with a small number of units (three to five per academic year) set aside for the curricular initiative, supported by dedicated funds, and not counted against the FTE cap.
The Global Education Advisory Committee assembled an inventory, from the 1997-98 catalogue, of courses that "contribute to global, intercultural, and/or multicultural education" -- 125 in all, offered by 79 members of the Wellesley faculty, in 26 different departments. As another indicator of the direction in which the curriculum has grown, a study of holdings in the Clapp Library revealed that over the past eight years acquisitions of new titles related to ethnic and cultural studies have nearly doubled, one-third of new titles acquired each year are published outside the United States, and approximately 14% of annual acquisitions, now, are in languages other than English. Similarly, the Davis Museum and Cultural Center has been diversifying its holdings.
Nonetheless, we should heed concerns students have been raising about curricular diversity. Many universities and colleges have been struggling with these issues and most responses are dependent on local cultures. Often they involve inter-institutional collaboration. At Wellesley we need time to implement and observe the combined effects on the curriculum of our hiring guidelines, new distribution and multicultural requirements, and possibilities opened by our new initiatives in interdisciplinary studies and through the development of half-unit courses.
Meanwhile, in response to students' concerns that the curriculum is deficient, we need to clarify (1) the mix of knowledge, skills, and sensibilities we believe they actually need for effective citizenship in today's changing world and why, and (2) whether and how we believe the current curriculum is in fact meeting those needs.
First, we know our students need the fundamentals of the liberal arts: education to citizenship in a complex and global society, knowledge of the past and diversity of the present, analytic and critical reasoning that demands ability to assess and evaluate contradictory claims and aspirations, public speaking, rhetoric, and mastery of a body of knowledge that is both broad and in some field quite deep. In addition we ought to provide our students:
Paradoxically, it seems to me, we will need to hold, honor, and amplify our differences in order to forge bonds of community. We can do a better job of describing and modeling for our students how intellectuals and scholars produce knowledge and how they debate with one another about profound and sensitive issues in a responsible and meaningful way. We should teach and learn how to deal with difference and disagreement by relating analytical reasoning and understanding to moral and political values.
Wellesley College will never be a utopia free of ignorance, incivility, and disagreement. If we pretend the College is or ever can exist without moments of discomfort, enmity, or conflict, we do ourselves and our community a disservice. Such a pretense, inevitably, mutes and blurs the differences that make for a rich and vibrant intellectual environment. If we're serious about taking advantage of the creative power of our diversity, then we must understand conflict as a necessary, productive force.
Differences of opinion and experience -- polar positions and contradictions -- are a critical part of life and learning. Education involves first mastering new categories and then integrating the new into a larger, more organic whole. The differentiation stage -- apprehending what is different from what is already known -- requires heightening and sharpening differences, intellectually and experientially, widening the gap between two opposing poles, really seeing, feeling and understanding what is different. The integration stage involves finding a new position that can incorporate the two conflicting realities in a third, more complex and more comprehensive whole, an essential element of many creative processes.
But while one learns from differences that are heightened and
amplified, not muted and papered over, we should try to avoid, as
best we can, personal attacks and personalized responses, turning
differences of viewpoint, fact or interpretation into personal
wounds. When that happens, as it often seems to do at Wellesley, it
threatens a relationship and shifts the focus quickly from the
intellectual work of understanding and learning about a substantive
difference to the emotional work of mending or compensating for
damaged identity or relationship. We need to learn to engage in
conflict, serious and sometimes painful, sometimes even
irreconcilable, as an ordinary and inevitable part of social life.
Only when conflict is understood in its inevitability and its
productivity, will we begin to develop capacities and skills to
manage it well.
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In closing, we should visit the question of how we will know whether we are making sufficiently steady progress in multiculturalism and diversity. With regard to hiring, within reasonable limits of time and practicality, we can always do a better job of outreach, since every new candidate brought into a pool increases its overall quality and its range of viewpoint diversity. I don't foresee a point when we will want to slacken our outreach efforts, although over time we may modify our strategies based on our experiences and evolving needs.
For students, we should gauge our progress toward inclusiveness not against criteria of proportionality but against measures of performance (GPA, progress toward degree, honors, leadership activities, graduate school admissions and career trajectories, etc.). The Office of Institutional Research can and should adapt and mine existing data sets for benchmarks against which we can regularly monitor our success, as an institution, in fostering the success of all our students.
For faculty, again, we don't need to apply criteria of proportionality in hiring. But we should closely monitor our success in retaining minority faculty. On retention, we can say that we are progressing when, over a reasonable interval, we see in the total pool of tenure-track faculty hired in each year no important associations between ethnic status and rates of reappointment, tenure, and promotion.
Attention to the training and upward mobility of existing employees and the retention and development of staff will always make good sense from an organizational standpoint. Successful work at Wellesley (as in most environments) includes a significant complement of hard-won local skills in which the institution has an appreciable investment. Our training and mentoring programs should be strengthened and stabilized.
Finally, the multicultural studies content of the curriculum will be shaped by responses on the part of individual faculty members and of academic departments/programs to incentives designed to encourage both curricular innovation and new hiring in multicultural studies. We seek a judicious balance of old and new. Our curriculum is rich and varied, albeit stronger in some areas than others. To embrace multiculturalism and global education is to grant distortions in the lenses through which we have seen the world and to educate ourselves about the ways in which a strictly Western framework has limited what we see and know.
If we place multiculturalism where I believe it belongs -- in the context of fundamental educational values associated with a free exchange of multiple views -- then we will continue our commitment to progress. Such progress, in turn, will necessitate resolute leadership in the design and implementation of well-crafted policies that integrate multiculturalism with the core values and functions of the College, and creative work articulating and monitoring concrete goals that will sustain us as an inclusive, diverse, and intellectually challenging college community.
I welcome comments or questions about these thoughts. If you've read this far, you have my thanks for your generosity of time and attention.