William Walker said he feels understood in the classes designated for his major.
Before pursuing her minor, Jessie Wang said she didn’t fully understand the history in grained in Chinese culture.
Both UF seniors are among a group of students fighting for their respective studies — the African-American studies major and the Asian American studies minor — to ensure the resources are still available for their programs to continue to grow.
The fight for both programs’ growth is being led in part by Sharon Austin, the director of the African American studies program. Austin, who has been at UF for 16 years, said the goal is to expand the African American studies program into a center and increase the amount of faculty available for the Asian American studies minor.
“A lot of people don’t like to talk about issues with race and ethnicity, but those are
issues in our society that aren’t going away,” Austin said.
• • •
Austin isn’t the first person to try to push UF’s African American studies program into a center.
As the program’s longest-standing director aside from the original director, Austin said she watched other directors before her try and abandon the process, leaving successors to start from scratch.
Her first attempt to push the program into a center was in 2015. But it failed, so she wanted to try again this year. She said turning the program into a center will help them add a master’s program and recruit faculty.
Programs cannot offer tenure, so professors in African-American studies must also work in other departments, dividing their time.
“It’s almost like having two jobs, but you have a lot more work than the average faculty member,” Austin said. “It puts professors at a disadvantage, especially professors of color, because they tend to be the people hired in these joint-appointed positions.”
The number of students with an African American studies major has continued to grow. Austin said their program has more students in the major than any other university in the nation. The major was first offered in 2013, and there are currently about 100 students in the program. Walker said he thinks making changes to the African American studies program would help with retention and improve understanding of the black community on campus.
“We want something loud and proud on the University of Florida’s campus saying that the University of Florida accepts the culture that has helped the University of Florida progress throughout the years,” he said.
Initially Walker was frustrated by the delay in the program’s transition to becoming a full fledged department, but said he now recognizes the importance of having a stepping stone.
“We understand, especially in a conservative space such as Florida, we understand that sometimes you can’t get the whole pie,” Walker said. “You have to take what you can get — take a slice — and then come back later and get a little bit more.”
Once Austin drafts the formal proposal, it will be reviewed by layers of administration, starting with administration in the College of Liberal Arts and Science. Costs, space and other details will be worked out as the paperwork moves forward, eventually up to being signed off on by President Kent Fuchs and Provost Joe Glover and approved by the Board of Trustees.
Mary Watt, the associate dean for UF’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, said they support the center, but it’s a long process to develop it. She said right now they’re tweaking the proposal with Austin.
“It’s really embryonic right now,” Watt said. “There is a lot of work still to be done.”
Austin said that while on the long path to becoming a center, the program will continue
to grow. “We have few resources and we have few faculty, but we have a very committed Student Body,” she said.
• • •
Wang has seen Asian American studies go from a certificate to a minor, but she still fears its progress will be erased. In less than two weeks, she’ll be the ninth student to graduate with the minor.
“As a person of color, you always have to fight for your resources,” the 21-year-old UF psychology senior said. Wang has helped push for letters of support on behalf of the minor.
She said though the minor is new, it doesn’t have many classes or faculty to sustain it. Wang wants to see the Asian American studies minor grow even more — but realistically, she just hopes it continues.
The classes she took for the minor, particularly Asian American politics, gave her a sense of empowerment and direction.
“It’s important to bring awareness to communities of color, and we do that through ethnic studies,” she said. “Because as displaced people, as immigrants, as minorities, in a country, it’s super important to know your own history so you know about these systemic issues that are impacting you whether or not you like it.”
Tara Chang, the 10th student to declare the minor, has also worked to gather letters of support. Chang said she got the idea from Austin, who thought letters might be beneficial. The business administration senior was worried when one of the professors who taught a course moved away, leaving the class without a teacher.
“It’s not that they’re going to cut (the minor),” the 21-year-old said. “It’s just, how are you going to continue to grow the minor and allow people to continue learning if you’re not even able to offer courses for that?”
Austin said the small number of people in the minor doesn’t show a lack of interest, but a lack of publicity.
“The minor is really relatively new,” she said. “A lot of people don’t know about it.”
Austin said the lack of faculty also hurts the minor. Getting more faculty is one of the things Chang and Wang hope to see. Wang feels that the value of ethnic studies goes beyond the pages of a textbook and the walls of a classroom.
“The difference between ethnic studies and chemistry, per se, is that it’s not academia that’s isolated,” she said. “It’s something that’s living and breathing, and it affects the lives of people today.”
Contact Romy Ellenbogen at rellenbogen@alligator.org and follow her on Twitter at @romyellenbogen
