James Millette has been a professor of African American studies at Oberlin
since 1991. Prior to coming here he worked at Denison University and the
University of the West Indies. Last week he proposed and got passed an
amendment to the strategic planning motion concerning the status of African
Americans at Oberlin.
At what point in the strategic planning process did you feel that
something was missing?
I had always felt that something was missing. I went
to one of the breakout sessions right at the start and some of the views I
expressed recently I also expressed then. It seemed to me that that the
strategic planners were somewhere else and were not particularly sensitive to
the sort of views that were ultimately articulated by myself and other
colleagues.
How effective do you think Oberlin is currently at addressing the concerns
of students of color?
Not as effective as it could be and not as well as it
did in the not too distant past. We’ve been a little bit too
accepting of the declining numbers of African-American students. One could
almost feel the commitment to the established traditions slip away. The
strategic planning process only helped to reaffirm that slippage. It’s not
an exaggeration to say that if we had not raised these issues in the process
they would never have come up.
To what do you attribute this slippage?
I think it’s the
chemistry of the institution. You really need to have a number of things
to maintain the traditions. You need a significant number of African-American
students, significant sensitivity to African-American concerns, a
significant number of African-American faculty and we don’t have any
of these things. On a day-by-day basis we are not influenced by
concerns for African-American students and other minorities and only address
them when a particular constituency raises its voice. I didn’t
imagine the students would refuse this if we articulated it but I don’t
think we should have had to articulate it.
What specific actions do you think the administration could take to
address these concerns?
I will speak about one particular thing. There
isn’t another department in the College that consistently represents the
views of African-American people besides African American studies. They may do
it from time to time but when it comes to making serious decisions I don’t
think that our voice is given the respect and the hearing that it needs to
receive. We have tried several times to have an African-American historian
appointed. It is very likely that we won’t have this position any time in
the near future. As far as administrators are concerned you need to have a
college that is continuously sensitive to the interests of African-American
people and we could bring that sensitivity to the fore.
Are you concerned about how the College’s stated desire to increase
tuition revenue will affect minority students?
We are very
concerned. That was one of the things that alerted us to the fact that the
concerns of African students needed to be addressed. Net tuition revenue
was the goal that was driving the financial planning. This means reductions in
students and faculty and also finessing of the types of students we are
after. I think this means we are going after more full-pay
students. We are buying into the class configuration of higher education
that is going on in this country. The student population is changing. Fewer
and fewer people can afford a college education on their own unless they can get
outside support. That is a reality that is facing us in the strategic
planning exercise.
How optimistic are you that these concerns will eventually be
addressed?
I’m optimistic and pessimistic. I’m pessimistic
because I think that the community as a whole is not sensitized to the issues we
have raised. I’m optimistic because I think that the administration
is probably now unlikely to overlook these concerns. They nearly missed the boat
in this planning process. I think that it’s going to take at least five
years. This is a very long time. We’re talking about four or
five generations of students who will be gone before the real fruits of this
exercise are perceived.