Weiss meets about new dept. proposal

At a Friday meeting with members of the student group JHUnity, Daniel Weiss, the newly-appointed Dean of Arts and Sciences, outlined his proposals for improving African-American academic study programs at Hopkins. Joined by Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Steven David and newly-appointed Vice Dean for Faculty and Academic Programs Adam Falk, Weiss also revealed the University's goals for dramatically increasing the diversity of the incoming student population in the next three years.

The meeting was the first time students in JHUnity discussed their written demands for an African-American Studies Department with the University administration. The students brought with them a petition signed by over 1500 students.

Weiss called the meeting an "extremely productive, very helpful discussion. The students worked extremely hard to write a cogent, articulate and passionate document making clear their desire for us to move forward on the issue of African and African-American Studies."

"Their proposal outlines a department," said Weiss. "At this juncture I think a department is unrealistic, and they understood what I was talking about."

"We didn't get bogged down with debate on a program or department," said JHUnity member and senior Eric Leslie.

Weiss said that he cannot create a program without the support of the faculty, and is "currently talking with the faculty to see what's possible." Weiss said that the program would "inevitably include a major" and graduate training programs.

"The long term goal on [JHUnity's] part would be to have a department," said Weiss. "My long term goal would be to make sure that African and African-American Studies is fully represented here at a substantive level. I don't know what the ideal answer to that question is yet. I need to study it. And I've asked the faculty to study it with me? What we can agree to commit to as a community is a process to get this done. And we'll have results quickly, or as quickly as we can. Sometime next year."

Some members of JHUnity are hoping to see more immediate results. "They keep telling us we have to have a lot of patience," said freshman JHUnity member Susie Schweigert. "It shouldn't take five years for this to happen."

Students requested that Weiss report back on updates by April 5. Weiss agreed, although he said that the updates may be limited.

In terms of expansion that is already in place, Weiss reported that the University already has 17 tenured faculty whose work deals with African and African-American Studies, including two new hires in the Department of Anthropology. Anthropologist Jane Geyer, who specializes in Africa, and Pamela Reynolds, who specializes in children and warfare, will join the faculty in July.

The University has also made two new hires of African-American junior faculty. Historian Chris Brown studies British history, abolitionism and the slave trade. Sociologist Pamela Bennett studies the sociology of education. Both will join the Hopkins faculty in July.

Before the creation of a program, Weiss wants to use Hopkins' present faculty in finding "ways of leveraging the existing strengths of the institution even further."

However, some JHUnity students want the university to look beyond the present faculty in order to recruit more African-American faculty and African-American Studies specialists. Freshman JHUnity member Morgan MacDonald would like the University to "push for a leading scholar in African-American Studies" who can help lead a new Department.

Weiss said that a successful program will have to have an "anchor." He cited a central location and an attractive environment with the "right kind of intellectual community and resources" as a requirement for the creation of a viable African-American Studies program.

"I'm completely committed to seeing [this] through," said Weiss.

In addition to the administrative proposals on academics, Weiss revealed the University's goals for diversifying the undergraduate population.

The Admissions Office, under Director John Latting, aims to have an incoming student body of 10 percent African-American students and 10 percent Hispanic students by 2005. The most recent incoming class was three percent African-American.

"Latting's goal is an aggressive one," said Weiss, who explained that the Office of the Deans will be fully supporting and funding this goal.

In order to reach these levels of student diversity, the Office of Admissions will be engaging in more aggressive and targeted recruiting by making more visits to under-represented schools.

Rather than focusing simply on SATs, admissions will be looking at various criteria and considering other "demonstrable factors showing achievement."

Weiss adds that Hopkins "needs work" in order to retain the African-American students it accepts by "mak[ing] sure that once we get them here, that we have in place the resources to make it a more attractive place to be."

"That alone is not an administrative issue," he said. "It's a school issue."

Both Weiss and the students interviewed by the News-Letter considered the meeting to be productive and encouraging.

"He's much more sympathetic towards our needs than previous deans, particularly the most recent dean," said Leslie. Also present at the meeting were Assistant Director of the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs Rose Varner Gaskins and professors Sara Berry of the History Department, Siba Grovogui of the Political Science Department, Neil Hertz of the English Department, Katrina Bell McDonald of the Sociology Department and Felicity Northcott of the Anthropology Department.