The only Syracuse University academic department born through protest and passion from students commemorated its 25th anniversary this weekend in a celebration highlighting the successes and struggles of its history.

The department of African American studies, which first formed 33 years ago, became recognized as a full department in The College of Arts and Sciences in 1979, hosted panels and discussions with former students and department chairs.

Both events emphasized the department’s struggle for equality and respect throughout its history and the importance of student activism to the department’s existence.

‘We are celebrating because we are not like any other department. We are the only department that came to the university by forcing ourselves on it,’ said Janis Mayes, professor of literature and interim chair of AAS from 1987 to 1988 and 1996 to 1998. ‘I would like to thank the current students who continue to carry the torch by keeping the cause on the front burner.’

Others agreed that the birth of the department came from committed members of the university community.

‘The students really brought this program onto campus, make no doubt about that,’ said Otey Scruggs, emeritus professor of history. Scruggs, a guest at the celebration, has been at SU since 1969 and worked with students and faculty through AAS’s history.

Mayes moderated a panel with many of the former chairs on Friday morning. Panelists described their time as chair, beginning with Harry Morgan, who first began developing the courses in 1972. He remained with AAS until 1979, when the department was officially recognized by The College of Arts and Sciences.

Morgan created a department with goals similar to those of Chancellor Nancy Cantor’s ‘Soul of Syracuse’ theme: learning not only in the classroom, but also by building connections within the community.

‘I started to develop within my own mind a philosophy of community connections in areas in which the community might be concerned,’ Morgan said.

Discussion centered on AAS’s efforts to gain and maintain a place of equality within The College of Arts and Sciences, often established through the activism and ambition from students.

‘There was this fusion of faculty and students, a kind of energy that the university couldn’t afford to resist,’ said Bruce Hare, AAS chair from 1990 to 1995.

Other chairs of the AAS department agreed.

‘There has been an intense struggle to sustain itself without the institutional support needed,’ said Linda Carty, the current chair of AAS.

Despite these struggles, though, AAS has grown and expanded over time. Next year, AAS will begin its first master’s program, run by Micere Mugo, director of graduate studies. The program will bring with it three new faculty members – a musicologist, sociologist and a historian – to replace two retiring professors and to cover the additional courses, Mugo said.

‘We are striving to ensure visiting scholars for 2006 and beyond,’ Mugo said.

Mugo runs the African Initiative program, where students and faculty study Africa on its own terms as a source of knowledge just like any other country, she said.

There will also be a new building at 805 E. Genesee St. to house the department’s Community Folk Art Center, currently located at a smaller building on the same street, Carty said. AAS has also just acquired another office at 113 Euclid Ave., despite university-wide space shortages.

The department’s fight is not over, however, according to its administrators. The aura of protest and activism that gave birth to the program seems to have diminished, which has caused a general concern, they said.

K.C. Morrison, the department chair of AAS from 1982 to 1987, said society exists in an environment that’s oppressed and is increasingly more oppressed, where it’s unacceptable to raise questions that were brought up when the department originated because Morrison thinks it is taboo in the political climate.

Another concern is a change in the way in which students care about the program.

‘Knowledge is important, but race is now envisioned by students as something to know rather than an internal passion,’ Morgan said.

The department must also deal with a lack of financial support.

‘We always mourn and regret highly the shrinking of financial aid that causes the collapsing of African studies to be encompassed in broader studies such as diversity or cultural knowledge,’ Mugo said.

One such collapse was that of the Maxwell School of Citizenship’s East African studies program, which was discontinued after the Cold War, a time when many African studies programs faltered because their governmental connections were no longer needed.

‘At the same time, the studies done today are done because the people love them and are committed,’ Mugo said about some African studies programs. ‘This will result in very, very good scholarship.’

Published on October 11, 2004 at 12:00 pm