Keene State College has undergone many changes in my time here, and I have been fortunate enough to be on many of the school’s governing bodies, one of the most prominent being the college’s senate where I am a senator. One of the unfortunate things of being in the senate though is the process of eliminating programs, programs get eliminated for many reasons and more often than not it is because of the amount of students who are enrolled in the program and how many have graduated within the past few years. One of the hardest in my opinion was being on the call when we voted to eliminate the Women and Gender Studies program.
The reason for the program’s elimination was due to the number of students currently enrolled in the program being low as well as the number of students who had graduated from the program in the past few years as well. It is never easy to eliminate a program in my opinion but sometimes it is what has to be done in order to help the college to continue to run smoothly and be successful in offering services the students are interested in, especially those with large amounts of backing and support from the student side of things. I always find it hard to eliminate programs as I always feel awful about the possibility of taking people’s livelihoods away.
Regardless, with the elimination of the Women and Gender Studies program the senate approved the Anti Racism academic program. I think that is a really great program to have at our school and I think it could teach a lot of people a lot about different cultures and being cautious of our words and actions and how they are perceived by others.
I do, however, take a few issues with the futures of these programs. First, and foremost, regardless of my voting record in the senate I do not think the Women and Gender Studies program needed to be removed, I think that even though the program had a small group of students who were very active in the program that there were a lot of students the program influenced. I have taken a class in Women and Gender Studies before and I have always been very interested in women’s perspectives throughout history so I think the program could have continued to influence people and their thinking as a result.
Secondly, I think the Anti Racism program is a really great idea and could do a lot for people and help them to expand their thinking and immerse them in new cultures and ideas. I think this would do loads of good for anyone to take a class on, even if you already have a decent understanding in how to not be racist. However, my problem is that regardless of all the good I think this program could do, I think it will only have a lasting impact on people who are already well versed in the topic. And I think what I mean by this is that people who really need the course, i.e. people who are racist, will not take courses in this topic, and if forced too it is highly unlikely that any useful information would actually stick. Especially when considering how stupid people who are racist are. It could do worlds of good for anyone but the people who could really benefit would not actually take advantage of it.
Lastly, and in my opinion the most important one, is that these programs do not have to be mutually exclusive. In the senate when these were discussed and even now as I am writing it feels like these programs do not need to be one or the other. I think that both of these programs would do well when incorporated together. I actually think it would be beneficial to do a combined program of the two of them, one might call it Cultural Studies and the program could incorporate race and gender and even offer concentrations in either race or gender or a mixed focus on the both. I think each of these programs are really great and to see one go is a shame and I think that by incorporating them both together you could still have the best of both worlds.
