Some ISU professors are calling for the ties between programs and their host departments to be severed.

Professors of programs with an emphasis on diversity, including women’s studies and African-American studies, say there are problems caused by being tied directly to larger departments, such as English or sociology, which have little to do with their programs.

Departments host programs, with many faculty undertaking responsibility as faculty for both the program and the department, a position called joint-appointment.

Sidner Larson, director of the American-Indian Studies Program, said his program is an example of one that has outgrown its host department. This program falls under the Department of English, which is a discipline with a different emphasis.

All that host departments can do is provide a home for the program, said Larson, associate professor of English. “That’s not fair to them. [The departments] were kind of dragged into it.”

“Faculty in a program have to have a department,” said Charles Kostelnick, professor and chairman of the Department of English. “The faculty’s professional lives can be deeply involved in the program but they’re part of the home department.”

Departments and programs are different, Larson said. Departments serve as higher administration to the programs they host.

He said programs and departments have coexisted alongside one another since the creation of programs, but it may be time for programs to stand on their own.

“It’s like parenting,” Larson said. “In almost all cases, programs have outgrown the utility of being overseen by departments. They have outgrown the ability of the departments to continue to help them. That kind of help has now become a hindrance and it’s not fair to ask departments to deal with business they’re not trained for.”

The African-American Studies Program also needs room for growth, said Donnell Bivens, program assistant for the African-American Studies Program.

“I think in a lot of ways we have outgrown the department, but in the same sense we rely on the college for resources and funding,” said Bivens, graduate student in interdisciplinary studies. “I’m worried about us growing with limited resources.”

In order for programs to redefine themselves, program directors would have to form a proposal, Kostelnick said.

The proposal would ask for the programs to be separated from the departments. The proposals would need to be negotiated with the departments and have to go through the dean’s office, and then possibly be discussed at the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences representative assembly, he said.

Larson said an alternative administration for ethnic and women’s studies that would not answer to any department would be the best outcome for the involved programs.

The new administration could focus on the needs of the ethnic and women’s studies programs. This would also be more fair to departments, allowing each of them to concentrate fully on the specific area of study the department is dedicated to, he said.

“I believe this program has the ability to stand on its own,” Bivens said of the African-American Studies Program. “I can see some cases where we’re almost being held back.”

Sometimes the vision of the program doesn’t match with the vision of the department, he said.

Larson said he looks to peer institutions, such as the University of Nebraska, who have taken certain programs out of departments and combined them into an Institute for Ethnic Studies.

“ISU is three to five years ahead of other universities in Iowa [in addressing diversity issues],” he said. “We’ve evolved into a place where we now need to go to the next step, which is an administrative structure that can focus specifically on areas of diversity.”

But until programs are redefined, Bivens said departments and programs will have to work with what they have.

“In the end, for programs to work well the departments have to be supportive,” Kostelnick said. “The programs rely on the departments to be supportive, and so I think the departments have a key role in maintaining the vitality of the cross-disciplinary programs. And it’s also important that the programs work with the departments to continue to develop strong relationships.”

Ethnic and women’s studies programs have developed and become the best they can under the circumstances thanks to the departments that host them, Larson said. But in order to be even better they can’t be headed by departments for much longer.

“We’ve evolved into a position where we’re leading Iowa universities in diversity, but that doesn’t mean we can rest on our laurels quite yet,” Larson said. “We’ve got excellent beginnings, but that shouldn’t be mistaken for finishing.”