In their letter responding to the AAC's proposal, Knowles and Dominguez acknowledge that FAS hopes to raise enough money for 40 new professorships. Those teaching positions have not yet been assigned to departments. The letter does say that FAS is willing to accept donations aimed specifically at the teaching and research on issues of race and ethnicity.
"This letter was the first time the dean made any connection regarding the future." Dominguez says. "It was never clear that Harvard was ready to use funds in this way."
Berkeley's Wang argues that Harvard, as a top-notch research university, should have at least nine professorships in ethnic studies, there in each of the major fields of Asian American studies, Native American studies and American Latino studies.
In arguing for tenured professorships, Harvard student supporters of ethnic studies say their main concern is the creation of permanent courses in ethnic studies. At their last meeting with Dean of Undergraduate Education Lawrence Buell, the AAC presented a preliminary proposal for an ethnic studies course in the general education curriculum.
"At this point, getting involved in the politics of departmentalization is missing the point of where we are," Jung says. "It's a shield behind which the administrators can bypass the fact that there aren't permanent courses."
More than 25 years after the University of California founded a comprehensive ethnic studies program, students say Harvard is lagging and that administrators are hiding behind...