Inclusive Scholarship: Developing Black Studies - Ford Foundation

Inclusive Scholarship: Developing Black Studies in the United States 63
Urbana/Champaign, for instance, the majority of course offerings in Afro-
American subjects are in other departments, with Afro-American studies
acting as a service department. Harvard has attempted in the past four years
to design an undergraduate concentration similar to other interdisciplinary
programs in the college, namely history and literature and social studies.
Beginning with a base in Afro-American history and literature, the
student is directed through tutorials and selected courses toward achieving
an academic competence in more than one discipline. Harvard also permits
joint concentrations in the college, so it becomes possible for students to
link Afro-American studies with one of the other departments. This has become
a popular option. At Harvard, as elsewhere, the current preprofessional
emphasis among undergraduates makes many wary of a major
which they think might jeopardize admission to a professional schools. 38
After the initial demand for Afro-American studies courses, there followed
a rather sharp decline in interest. The peak years were 1968 through
1970.By 1974,there was general concern that these programs would become
extinct for lack of enrollment. The reasons for the decline in student interest
were many: (1) students,both Black and White,increasingly turned from
political to career concerns; (2) the atmosphere in many courses was hostile
and antagonistic toWhite students;(3) many of the courses lacked substance
and academic rigor; and (4) campus communities had been exhausted by
the rhetoric,bombast,and revolutionary ideology that still permeated many
of these courses and programs. The White guilt many Black activists had relied
on had been spent. 39 Born,as these programs were,out of campus crises,
in an era of highly charged rhetoric, unconditional demands, and cries for
revolution, it was difficult for them to shake that style and reputation.
Institutional Context
The programs that survived naturally reflected the circumstances in which
they were created. In the short run, colleges like Yale and Stanford, where
programs were adopted in relative calm, seem to be among the soundest and
most stable. Furthermore, those that opted for programs—avoiding faculty