African-American studies to become major next semester

It has been almost six years since VCU’s administrators learned they could not offer students a major in African-American studies. That is no longer the case. Beginning fall semester, African-American studies officially becomes a major.

“Students who come to VCU looking for cultural and world studies might be interested in African-American studies,” said Roderick McDavis, provost and vice president for academic affairs. “We believe that we have a pretty strong core of students who already have an interest in the major. By now promoting it and letting everyone know that it is available it (not only) will attract students from VCU but also out-of-state students.”

Furthermore, because of its location and diversity, VCU could have one advantage in offering a major in African-American studies that other Virginian colleges and universities do not have.

Stephen D. Gottfredson, dean of the College of Humanities and Sciences, said that advantage stems from VCU’s heavy involvement with its community.

“One of the things that is neat about VCU – and one of the things that attracted me here – is that it (VCU) takes its role as an urban institution very seriously,” he said. “VCU is not walled from the community and is heavily involved with it. You can walk around VCU and not even know if you are on campus or not.”

VCU, he said, has a unique opportunity to build a program that provides interest and value to the Richmond community – something that schools like Harvard might not have.

“Our faculty is directly involved with the health of the African-American community and our community is very involved with the health of our African-American program,” he said.

Mark Wood, an associate professor of African-American studies and religious studies, concurred with Gottfredson’s assessment, saying he sees this major as enhancing the commitments of the local community to join projects that deal with African-American history in Virginia.

“We live in a city with a large African-American population, and Richmond has a rich history of African and African-American presence,” he said. “Jamestown, for example, was where the first ship brought slaves to North America in 1619. We have an incredibly long history of African presence in Virginia and having the program here lets the university really connect up with that history.”

Davrae Stokes, president of VCU’s Black Caucus, said that in high school she was mostly taught European literature. Taking classes in African-American studies made her see literature and history from a different perspective.

“The (African-American studies) classes made me see my history from a different point of view,” she said. “Taking those classes makes you look outside the box.”

Since the upcoming reconstruction of the College of Humanities and Sciences will result in two new schools, both schools could strengthen African-American studies and other disciplines in which the AAS faculty might teach. The proposed new schools could be named the School of Government and Public Affairs and VCU’s School of World Studies or VCU’s World School.

“Both new schools,” Gottfredson said, “want to develop a close affiliation with African-American studies. African-American studies clearly is cultural studies but is also government and public affairs. A lot of the faculty who are jointly appointed to teach African-American studies will be in one or the other of those two schools.

“As we add faculty, we will have faculty who will strengthen African-American studies and some other program in the two schools.”

Therefore, African-American studies, he said, would become free-standing in the schools.

McDavis agreed that the bachelor’s in African-American studies will help VCU become more of a global village, meaning that VCU gets smaller and more interconnected as communication becomes faster and information becomes more accessible.

“Major universities in the 21st century ought to have a multifaceted curriculum,” he said. “African-American studies is one of these opponents that makes your curriculum multifaceted. It is also important for a major research university to have as many different and unique programs as it can offer.”

In addition, Wood said, he now hopes the university will further its commitment and invest more resources in African-American studies.

“We hope that we will be able to hire a couple of persons – full time,” he said. “Right now, all of the appointments are joint appointments, and maybe we will be able to look for someone who is full time and only committed to African-American studies.”

In terms of faculty, McDavis said, VCU has a sufficient number of staff because of the strong minor it already offered.

“Most of the faculty that we need to offer a major are already on board in various departments, both in the college and outside the college,” he said. “We don’t believe that we will need to hire new faculty to offer the major nor do we believe that we’ll need additional resources.”

Gottfredson said strengthening the African-American studies major has been a priority for years. With it as a major, he is confident it will continue to be a priority.

“Deans change on average in less than four years,” he said. “When we all change, we hope to have someone who shares our views on this program. But having a major means that if I am gone tomorrow, no matter what, African-American studies will still thrive.”

Francis Bradford, acting communications director for the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia, said new program development guidelines have been approved that deal with spinoff programs like African-American studies at VCU. These are programs with courses already offered on campus by the institutions.

“If a program meets the criteria of a spinoff program, it does not have to go to the board. The staff can approve it,” she said. “That was the major change we went through since 1997 when the (African-American) major was rejected.”

The approval, Wood said, became an issue in the ’90s and faculty have worked hard on it since then.

“It finally succeeded,” he said.