Inclusive Scholarship: Developing Black Studies - Ford Foundation

220 Inclusive Scholarship: Developing Black Studies in the United States
Finally, the third goal can be viewed in the context of Ford’s longstanding
interest in stimulating the pipeline supplying African Americans
(and ethnic minorities, in general) to the academic profession. Although
significant strides have been made in this regard, we could very well be
on the brink of a significant decrease in the number of African Americans
entering the professorate. Key factors here are the spreading assault on
affirmative action and the accompanying attack on Ethnic Studies. The
upshot of these trends is that we might well see the day—in the not too
distant future—when an African American Studies unit could exist on a
given campus and yet have few, if any, African Americans on its faculty.
There are certainly other relevant issues that deserve attention here—
for example, the decrease in African American undergraduates at many
campuses. The bottom line is that much work remains to be done—and
done urgently—if the gains in terms of institution building and diversifying
faculty are to be maintained, much less built upon. Just how many resources
the Foundation may wish to dedicate to these efforts in the wake of
the sustained funding that it has already invested in African American Studies
departments and programs is a crucial policy decision that must be addressed.
Our recommendation is that the dedication of a reasonable
amount of funds to African American Studies is more than justified at this
point. At the very least, new RFPs that are designed to target a broader institutional
audience or for collaborative projects should allow for a central
role for African American Studies.
The problem of leadership is much broader than simply a question of
finding individuals who are willing and able to head African American
Studies units. Rather, our site visits brought home at every turn the crucial
importance of informed, supportive administrators to ensure the health of
African American Studies on a given campus. The roles played by such figures
as Neil Rudenstine at Harvard (President), Earl Lewis at the University
of Michigan (Dean of the Graduate School and Vice Provost for Academic
Affairs-Graduate Studies), and Claudia Mitchell-Kernan at UCLA (Vice
Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Graduate Division) have
a great deal to do with the relative strength of African American Studies at
those three schools. And given the institutional vulnerability of most