Activist groups have been raising awareness about racial issues across the nation and on MSU’s campus. The most recent expression of this racial ire focuses on MSU’s James Madison College.
The W.E.B. DuBois Student Society, an organization for black James Madison students, recently published a Racial Climate Study comprised of anonymous grievances surrounding instances of racial micro-aggressions or unsatisfactory discussion of racially sensitive issues within James Madison College classrooms. The DuBois Student Society stated through e-mail that student responses to the study do not necessarily reflect the views of the Society.
The first two charts within the study are derived from an event held last fall titled “Black Lives Matter — Be Heard,” open exclusively to black James Madison students. There were 37 people in attendance. A final series of pie charts comes from a two week long online survey targeted at students of color within James Madison, of which 32 students responded. Alongside the complaints, the study also provided descriptions of how the students felt impacted by the events.
The pie charts show mixed responses to how much these instances of racism impacted student learning. While roughly 41 percent of respondents said that these incidents didn’t affect their academic performance, the remaining 59 percent reported that they felt discouraged from participating in class discussion, or were uncomfortable attending class or a professor’s office hours because of racial dynamics.
The proposal also called for a meeting with James Madison administration, including the dean, the director of diversity programs, the chairman of the Inclusion Committee and a representative from the James Madison College Alumni Association, before the end of February to discuss the results of the survey and potential solutions.
Such solutions include a call for more black James Madison professors, greater inclusion of black authors and texts into core curriculum, and courses on black social movements and similarly related fields.
In response to the society’s study, the James Madison student senate passed a resolution directly addressing some of the problems the study presents. The W.E.B. DuBois Student Society said they were in concurrence with the resolution passed.
Significant call to action within the student senate’s resolution include better diversity training for faculty, staff and students, for the administration to create a diverse volunteer group of James Madison College ambassadors — made up of all represented identities in the college — and for non-white authors and their works to be “regularized, in order to explain systemic racism and foster Madison classrooms in which the subject of race is discussed in a culturally sensitive way, to ensure an environment that is both intellectually challenging and emotionally safe.”
There was no direct mention within the student senate’s resolution of some of the W.E.B. DuBois Student Society’s bolder suggested solutions within the study, which argue one of the college’s introductory courses, MC 111 Harlem Renaissance, should not be taught by a white professor.
The current teacher of the course, assistant professor Melissa Fore, expressed concern towards this line of thinking.
“I can understand students wanting more black Professors in Madison,” she said via email. “But identity politics can be stifling at times... Does James Madison need to hire more African American professors? Yes. Should that be a reason to question my position as a scholar of African American literature? No.”
