Front Page > Issues > 2004 > February

PSU finally establishes Black Studies major

The Black Studies department at Portland State University has finally established a major after thirty-four years of offering solid minor and certificate programs.

Caine Lowery, a fifth-year student at PSU and a Black Studies major, was instrumental in instituting the program. He and other Black Studies advocates collected several thousand signatures over the last few years. Lowery also sat on the student senate as well as the university curriculum committee, which eventually approved of the major currStudies major at PSU.

The department faculty is made up of renowned academicians such as Dr. Ridwan Nytagodien and Dr. E Kofi Agorsah, who currently heads the department. These professors have fought alongside its students in order to implement this signStudies major at PSU.

The department faculty is made up of renowned academicians such as Dr. Ridwan Nytagodien and Dr. E Kofi Agorsah, who currently heads the department. These professors have fought alongside its students in order to implement this significant new development. Lowery feels that the department is made up of dedicated, accessible faculty whose commitment to their work as teachers drives their students to succeed. “They expect excellence that reaches beyond the academic world,” he said.

Lowery said he sees a lack of exposure as the primary limitation on the department’s development. “The students and faculty push the department,” he explained, “but I think the university could put more resources into building and maintaining the Black Studies department.”

The faculty’s devotion to preserving its own history is a key element in its structure and unity. While many university departments in other parts of the country have adopted the title “African American,” PSU has decided to stick with “Black Studies” as a way of paying homage to the people responsible for its existence. “We were created when the respectable term was ‘black’ and changing that name would mean losing contact with the origins of the program,” said Professor Darryl Millner.

Dr. Millner has been with Portland State since 1974 and served as chair of the Black Studies department from 1983-1994. He emphasized the students’ role in the development of the department over the years. “The reason we have a program at all is because of student activism in the 1960s,” he said. He explained that students have wanted a major from the beginning, but that they met with so much resistance at that time that they were willing to compromise on minor and certificate programs for the short term. A new wave of student activism at PSU coupled with a faculty with a strong understanding of the university community, committee structure and other formal procedures has formed a compelling force for change and expansion.

The faculty commitment to providing its students with a global understanding of history and culture has kept a thriving overseas program in place for over 20 years. This program takes students to the Caribbean and Africa, giving students first hand experience with a local community and a better understanding of their own origins. Much like the current implementation of the major curriculum, the addition of the overseas program came about as a result of demand from students and faculty.

The addition of the major has been the most significant new development in recent years. “Right now, we’re looking at our curriculum and we’re also trying to put in a solid advising system,” said Millner, “We’re trying to make the program function as smoothly and as efficiently as possible.”

Because of its dedication to active change, the Black Studies department offers its students a unique opportunity to participate in their own education at a practical as well as a theoretical level. “What students learn and what kind of learning environment they operate in while they’re learning are both very important,” said Millner.

Black Studies, as a concept, offers students from a variety of different backgrounds a new way of thinking about history that challenges the Eurocentric model. Emphasis on a Eurocentric canon is something Lowery found discouraging in his early education. He described himself as a disruptive and angry middle and high school student. He cites his introduction to Black Studies, which came in the form of reading about the Black Panther movement, as a turning point in his development as a student. “It surprised me that so many students, and so many black students in particular, are not completely aware of black history,” he said. “When they learn about it, they liberate themselves from an educational system that doesn’t serve [black students] because it’s from a Eurocentric point of view.” Lowery is not against learning European history, but he emphasized the vital importance of balance in order to achieve a truly inclusive educational system.

Within Portland, the Black Studies program is regarded as one giant step for the local African-American community and one small step for African-Americans statewide. PSU is the only school in Oregon with a Black Studies department. Lowery attributes this to the city’s strong activist community. Millner emphasized the number of African-Americans living in Portland compared with the rest of the state. “Portland has the only black population in Oregon if you don’t count the prisons,” he quipped.

The Black Studies department is a part of the liberal arts and sciences program at PSU. A degree in Black Studies qualifies students for a wide range of jobs in the public sector as well as continuing education in a variety of different subjects. “We are not just for black students,” said Millner, “but for anyone who wants to learn the truth about the past and who wants to learn how to be effective in the multicultural environment that the future represents.”

Julie Sabatier is a local activist and writer.