"Some faculty see it as a self-empowerment question," he said.
Phuong said it was time to realize that the movement for ethnic studies is a political statement.
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"The creation of an ethnic studies concentration at Harvard has politicized ramifications," he said.
Lonnie Everson '02 said the administration's resistance to ethnic studies has only increased the political nature of the movement.
"We had a concrete plan in '97," he said. "We've tried to work with the administration on more of an intellectual level, and the fact that they are afraid of the political nature [of ethnic studies] is ironic because if we don't see results within the system, we're willing to take it to a political level."