Published Monday, March 22, 2004
Conference Honors “Those Who Came Before”
By Lolita Paiewonsky
APPIAN STAFF WRITER

In a weekend of reflection and reunion, over 200 current and former students and faculty members, as well as staff, family members, and supporters, assembled for the second annual Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) Alumni of Color Conference earlier this month.

Titled “Reconnecting the I and We: Building Community for Change,” the conference featured lectures, panel discussions, roundtables, workshops, poster presentations and networking – all concerned with the persistence of racism in education.

The conference began with a panel highlighting the 50th anniversary of the landmark 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision to end “separate but equal” schools, Brown vs. Board of Education.

Held in Askwith Lecture Hall and moderated by Dr. Robert Peterkin, the event featured a host of distinguished panelists: Emory University Research Professor Emilie Vanessa Siddle Walker; director of Legal and Policy Advocacy Programs for Harvard Civil Rights Project Angelo Ancheta; UCLA Professor Mitchell J. Chang; HGSE Professor Emeritus Charles V. Willie; and HGSE professor and noted civil rights attorney Gary Orfield. A videotape is available for viewing from Media Services (Gutman Library, 3rd floor).

HGSE Lecturer on Education Mary Casey said she praised the student organizers of the panel, finding it “intellectually stimulating and politically vital.”

“We have gained much ground in the fight for racial equality . . . but we have also, in recent years, been losing that ground at an alarmingly steady rate,” Casey told The Appian after the panel. “Our efforts need now, more than ever, to be coordinated and undeterred in regaining what was lost, and moving ahead to what has yet to be attained.”

The weekend’s assemblage did not suffer from a lack of broad and difficult questions for educators. For instance, how can we reach the present generation of high school students and enable them to carry this nation forward with values, integrity, and freedom for all, and how can we equip them to live and to participate in a global community? How can we inculcate the notion that education has to be a cooperative effort, and how can we build a real partnership among schools, administrators, families, and governments that will last?

The conferees also focused on how to secure the provision of an equal, quality education and educational experience for so-called “minority” children in our country. For example, panelists explored how to teach and ensure learning for English Language Learners, children with special needs, and children from economically disadvantaged homes.

During a conference focused on issues of diversity, attendees needed to look no farther than Appian Way to highlight relevant problems and people trying to mitigate those challenges.

In a Saturday morning panel titled “Historical Reflections on Race and Education at HGSE: Nurturing the Souls of Students of Color,” moderated by Director of Admissions Roland Hence, Professor Emeritus Charles Willie said he today asks the same question he asked in the 1960s: where are the faculty members of color?

Willie and former HGSE Assistant Professor Eileen de los Reyes related how they used to conspire to effect change at HGSE, finding strength in numbers.

De los Reyes became emotional recalling the bittersweet struggles of those days when she as a young Latina and Dr. Willie as a young Black man worked to make things better for themselves as minority faculty, for those who would follow them, and for the smattering of enrolled students of color.

Professor Emerita Courtney Cazden, a Caucasian educator who left Harvard in 1995 after 30 years, shared that she “finally” learned to be more sensitive to the nuances in treatment of mainstream students and students of color. She said she may have succeeded in becoming more sensitive because, at one commencement, she was honored by ALANA (the African-American, Latino, Asian, Native American, and Allies Caucus).

Another panelist, Rosemary Ackley Christensen, Ed.M. 1971, intentionally described herself as an “American Indian” because, she explains, all of us born in America are “native Americans.”

Christensen, who served as director of the Indian Education Department in the Minneapolis public schools from 1978-1991, lamented that Read House, next door to Gutman Library, was no longer afforded as a gathering place for American Indian students. HGSE offices needed the space, Assistant Director for International Affairs Rosalind Michahelles later told The Appian.

Christensen also shared memories of being asked by HGSE officials to attend certain social functions with her American Indian peers, which made her feel like she was on display as HGSE’s diversity effort.

Kia Martin, a doctoral student who headed the hospitality sub-committee of the conference, expressed how “ecstatic” she was that the conference appeared to be even more successful than last year, and how heartened she was upon witnessing the incoming Alumni Advisory Board at work.

Victor Milner, a doctoral student who headed the Photo Exhibition in Gutman Library Lobby and Reading Room, echoed the views of all in venerating “those who came before” – both the alumni still able to be present, and those from decades past whose footprints remain for inspiration and guidance today.

The Exhibition, consisting of over two dozen vignettes of HGSE alumni of color from the past four decades, reflected the broad range of achievements and spheres of influence – from municipal, national, and international education; university and administration reform, including admissions and financial aid; human and civil rights; philanthropy; arts and culture; health; community; private enterprise; government; science and technology.

The conference was not without spirited debate. Some fireworks emanated from a presentation by Christopher Bell, who attributed the underperformance of some Black children to Black churches and their purported reinforcement of white images of power, values, and goodness.

The conference climaxed at Saturday night’s awards banquet and dance at the Cambridge Marriott.

The keynote speaker at the banquet was Dr. Sylvia Hurtado, Ed.M. ’83, a self-described Tejana (an Hispanic female Texan), who is an associate professor at the Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education at the University of Michigan. She discussed her work over the last twenty years, during which time she has pursued her research interests in student educational outcomes, campus climate, and diverse students in higher education.

Hurtado’s projects include the recent book Enacting Diverse Learning Environments, as well as the National Study of Hispanic College Students, in which she studied longitudinal cohorts of Latino students entering college in the 1990s. The lawyers in the highly publicized University of Michigan affirmative action cases involving race-sensitive admissions practices utilized some of her research.

The conference also honored several other alumni who have made significant contributions to education: Claremont Graduate University Professor Michele Foster (Ed.D.), University of California – Davis Professor Sunaina Maira (Ed.D.); Community College of Baltimore County Chancellor Irving McPhail (MAT); Milwaukee Public Schools Professional Development Specialist Sandra Dickerson (Ed.M.); Rice University Associate Provost Roland Smith (Ed.D.); and Tufts University Program and Education Director Jean Wu (Ed.M., Ed.D.).

Angelica Vega, a masters student in the School Leadership/Teacher Leader program and a conference committee member, said she was particularly interested in Foster’s work on “Black women in teaching” and was struck by Foster’s cutting acceptance speech. Foster lambasted the treatment of minority students she experienced during her year in Cambridge.

Vega said she was “disappointed that more alumni and current students did not attend the Conference” and was especially dismayed at the absence of two alumnae who were being honored.

A Caucasian masters candidate in the Learning and Teaching concentration, Elizabeth Drew regretted that there were white students, faculty, and others who could and should have attended - some of whom might have done so, but for lack of outreach. She believes that, as educators, we all share the same basic concerns and that “whites should not be left out of the conversation.”

Drew said she found the conference fruitful and was particularly intrigued by Chancellor McPhail’s presentation and his successful application of “Kotter’s Principle” (the 8-step process to institutional change) at the Community College of Baltimore County.

Some students indicated a desire for more opportunities to network at future conferences.

“At the banquet, people sat with their ‘comfortable’ groups; maybe next year they can organize the seating so that everyone is in a situation where they can meet people they haven’t met or talked to before,” suggested Heang Ly, a Cambodian masters student in the Administration, Planning and Social Policy Program.

Laura Carmen Arena, the Assistant Director for Multicultural Affairs in the Office of Student Affairs, said she found the entire conference’s focus “in excellent alignment with the mission of the School.” She added, “As a Latina and an alumna, I felt moved and energized to be a part of it.”

All told, the ancient wisdom from the Vedic Upanishads that inspired the conference’s photo exhibition seemed to pervade the entire weekend: “Look back at how it was with those who came before, look forward how it will be with those who come hereafter.”

Lolita Paiewonsky, a Ed.M. candidate in the Arts in Education program, is a member of the Appian Board of Editors.