Significance
Reinstituting the Africana Studies Program at WMU is based on the concerns of faculty and students alike for the harm caused when WMU suspended the Africana Studies Program. A great irony exists when we consider that an institution of higher education which prides itself on promoting diversity, inclusion and equity has at the same time ‘suspended’ and essentially put in the cold storage its Africana Studies Program. This action has deprived its students of a key multicultural and multidisciplinary academic experience and had sent a mixed signal about the University’s acceptance of this field as an important discipline that can contribute as much to students and the WMU community as much as any other humanities academic area, including, for example, the study of European history and culture and mainstream U.S. history and culture.
Consequently, there is an imperative need for a curriculum at WMU that addresses the historical and cultural backgrounds of minorities and minority students. This project will build on the assessment of two recently funded Diversity Change Initiative Grants (Perryman-Clark and Ballard, 2014), as well as a self-study done in the Summer and Fall of 2013 by a group of faculty, staff and students from the following units across campus: Africana Studies, Gender and Women’s Studies; Lewis Walker Institute, African center for Development and Policy research; History; Counseling Education and Counseling Psychology; Sociology to list but a few. Thus, our grant project is truly a collaborative effort between faculty, students and staff. We are actively seeking more participation from the departments and programs mentioned above and others. The findings of the self-study in the form of more than one hundred and fifty petition signatures from students and letters from students addressed to President Dunn, as well as letters from faculty, administrators, and staff overwhelmingly speak to the strong feelings of disapproval and protest about the suspension of the Africana Studies Program
