Univ. Major and tutorials not enough By Betsy Narváez I have to disagree with Fletcher Durant’s view of recent wespeaks on the topic of Asian American studies at Wesleyan as “uncompromising and unreasonable”. I feel those wespeaks served to broach the broader topic of the lack of ethnic/multicultural studies at Wesleyan. Durant points out that other “small liberal arts colleges” have Ethnic Studies in lieu of something like Asian American studies. Notice that Wesleyan doesn’t even have an ethnic studies major. The closest we get to that here is the American Studies major with a concentration in Ethnic Studies, implying that it is somehow “extra”. And so what if other schools don’t offer Asian American studies either? You would think that with Wesleyan’s reputation for being a trailblazing school, the administration would jump at the chance to be one of the first. Durant parades around the University Major as some sort of cure-all when this is clearly not that case. He states, “The University Major at this very liberal school allows you to study any topic, provided you take the effort to show that you’re serious.” The word “almost” should be in included there. Durant claims that if there are not enough classes students can set up tutorials, but in that November 16th issue of the Argus, Dean of the Junior Class David Phillips clearly stated that “Programs of study that are overly dependent on tutorials are likely to be rejected by the University Major committee,” and that students “must also demonstrate...that a coherent program of study can be developed from courses that are already a part of the Wesleyan Curriculum.” So let’s say I want to be a Latino Studies major. There are only 2 courses in wesmaps that actually fall into that category, namely “Visions of the Hispanic” and “Chicano/a Literature: Legal Fictions”. Someone might argue that were I a “dedicated” student I could slap together a major from offerings in American Studies and Latin American Studies courses. That is where one mistaken assumption resides. Though there is overlap, area studies [studies based on a geographical area] are not the same as Ethnic Studies. Latin American Studies is not the same as Latino Studies, just as Asian Studies is not the same as Asian American Studies. In this hypothetical Latino Studies major I would be left to attempt to create many tutorials and study projects, increasing the probability that my plans for a major would be rejected by the University major Committee. Durant also suggests, “to argue for the implementation of a single topic of personal interest in the name of diversity is misleading, if not downright selfish.” Who said that it was necessarily “in the name of diversity”? Though only recently emerging, Ethnic Studies is an intellectual field with its own inherent worth in education. The call for Multicultural/Ethnic Studies is a call for the recognition of sectors of American society that have been treated as optional and less important in academia; it is not some sort of little concession meant to placate the minority population of this school. Perhaps Durant skipped over the first sentence in Jessica Chan’s wespeak “Asian American Studies is for everyone.” Likewise, Latino Studies is for everyone, not just Latino students. I did appreciate the one comment Durant made about how “it would be great to add an Ethnic Studies position.” However, the analogy between having a Scandinavian Studies professor and having an Asian American studies professor is sort of irrelevant. Yes, Scandinavia has its own history, culture, etc, but the reason that students and others are trying to push to the forefront the study of major ethnic groups in the U.S. is because they are major, but this significance in numbers, influence, etc. has been systematically ignored, neglected and pushed back into the woodwork of society, with maybe a nod here and there for special programming and heritage months. I don’t believe that the same is true about Scandinavia, at least not to the same extent, but if it is, well then I’m willing to admit I’m wrong. It is time that not only Wesleyan but society-at-large realizes that the history and studies of ethnic minorities in the U.S. is PART OF American history and the American tradition, not IN ADDITION TO. Narváez is a member of the class of 2004.

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