POV: Where’s Antiracism in the BU Hub?
“If we truly want all students to graduate as ‘reflective, resourceful individuals ready to live, adapt, and lead in an interconnected world,’ an antiracist Hub unit is imperative”
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POV: Where’s Antiracism in the BU Hub?
“If we truly want all students to graduate as ‘reflective, resourceful individuals ready to live, adapt, and lead in an interconnected world,’ an antiracist Hub unit is imperative”
It’s almost graduation, and seniors will soon dot campus in caps and gowns. Thanks to the BU Hub, all seniors, regardless of school or major, have a certain core of general education experiences and knowledge in common. At some point in their undergraduate years, each had to “identify and apply major concepts used in the natural sciences to explain and quantify the workings of the physical world” (Scientific Inquiry 1).
Each also had to “craft responsible, considered, and well-structured written arguments, using media and modes of expression appropriate to the situation” (First-Year Writing Seminar; Writing Intensive Course).
The beauty of the Hub is in its breadth, exposing all students to important learning experiences: an English major has to take that unit in Scientific Inquiry; engineers have to learn to write effectively. These, and all other learning outcomes in the Hub, are key components of a BU education. As faculty, we applaud the work of the General Education Committee in formalizing these expectations.
But what is missing is an explicit focus on antiracism. Defined by BU Diversity & Inclusion as “the active and conscious effort to work against the multi-dimensional aspects of racism,” antiracism should be woven into every BU undergrad’s studies.
The Hub has a “Diversity, Civic Engagement, and Global Citizenship” capacity, a logical home for an antiracist Hub unit. But the three Hub units there—The Individual in Community, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, and Ethical Reasoning—refer to race sparingly, mentioning it only as one of several options in a single learning outcome. The framing language there also mentions race, but in a dated, “multicultural” way, referencing the past rather than the future and centering “BU’s founders,” while continuing the practice of othering BIPOC [Black, Indigenous, people of color] students. Overall, the Hub stays in the white university’s comfort zone, starkly avoiding the direct antiracist language of BU’s own Center for Antiracist Research (“Our Mission: To build an antiracist society that ensures racial equity and social justice”).
The problem here is the flipside of the advantage of the Hub itself: if a concept, or “capacity,” is present in the Hub, we know that students will graduate having at least been exposed to direct instruction and in-depth engagement with it at least once. Conversely, if something is not present in the Hub, though some students may encounter it in their studies, others graduate without any exposure whatsoever.
Some faculty might object that they don’t have the expertise to teach antiracist courses in their discipline, but there are resources on campus to help. Initially, few departments offered classes that met the Writing Intensive Course Hub unit, for example. But, just this spring, MA 301: Writing in Mathematics, and CS 115: Academic Writing in Computer Science, were first taught, giving students the option of completing that Writing Intensive Course unit in departments that previously had not offered it. Departments aren’t on their own: the CAS Writing Program Writing in the Disciplines team offers collaborative, interdisciplinary programs to faculty seeking support. Similarly, the Center for Antiracist Research and its interdisciplinary partnerships would be excellent resources.
Perhaps aware of their missing component, the BU Hub recently unveiled the Hub Pathway in Social & Racial Justice highlighting courses that do offer students the opportunity “to articulate and critically examine their own beliefs and opinions on such topics as human diversity, identity, race and antiracism, class, gender, sexuality, intersectionality, power, and social equity and inclusion, among others.” Here, students may discover AA 112: “Black Power in the Classroom,” or BI 510: “Institutional Racism in Health and Science,” and more.
The Pathway is a good start, but BU students are eager for a more committed approach. If we truly want all students to graduate as “reflective, resourceful individuals ready to live, adapt, and lead in an interconnected world,” an antiracist Hub unit is imperative. The time is now: during last year’s initial Hub assessment, faculty across BU voiced support for an antiracist addition.
What would such a Hub unit look like? Ask us, and our colleagues who comprise the initial interdisciplinary cohort of fellows in the Designing Antiracist Curricula Fellowship Program. We have been led ably by Phillipe Copeland, clinical associate professor, School of Social Work; Priya Garg, associate dean, office of medical education, BU Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine; Jean Otsuki, associate director of the Center for Teaching & Learning; and Megan Segoshi, manager of faculty diversity initiatives, BU Diversity & Inclusion. Together, we spent the past eight months learning and making changes to our own teaching. We know that an antiracist curriculum means emphasizing the importance of teams of researchers above lone genius models of inquiry, learning and acknowledging the history of race and harmful policies across disciplines, and reframing the story of academic fields to center contributors that have been overlooked or forgotten. Let’s take this step toward transforming BU’s undergraduate education.
Christina Michaud, associate director of English language learning in the College of Arts & Sciences Writing Program, can be reached at cmichaud@bu.edu. Ashley Davis, a clinical associate professor at the School of Social Work, can be reached at davisash@bu.edu. Alexandra Dobie, an instructor of medicine at the Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, can be reached at aldobie@bu.edu. Melisa Osborne, a research assistant professor of bioinformatics and biology at the College of Arts & Sciences, can be reached at melosbor@bu.edu.
“POV” is an opinion page that provides timely commentaries from students, faculty, and staff on a variety of issues: on-campus, local, state, national, or international. Anyone interested in submitting a piece, which should be about 700 words long, should contact John O’Rourke at orourkej@bu.edu. BU Today reserves the right to reject or edit submissions. The views expressed are solely those of the author and are not intended to represent the views of Boston University.
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