Help me with this moral/political dilemma

[Pangloss]

As some of you may know, I'm a professor of information technology at a small southern university, and working on my PhD in information systems (the only point there being that they're paying for my education and I can't be real picky about where I'm working for a while). The other day an interesting situation came up and I haven't quite figured out what to do about it. I thought it might be interesting to see what other people think.

 

This, of course, is Black History Month. It occurs in February because it's the shortest month of the year. (No, really.) That fact is bad enough, and many modern African Americans such as Morgan Freeman and Bill Cosby have commented that they're insulted by the whole thing and refuse to participate. I suspect my for-profit school, which has many African American students and heavily recruits in African American high school districts, has no clue about this controversy, and merely participates in the event for reasons of political correctness.

 

Anyway, getting to the point, I've been asked to "recommend" some of my post promising and hard-working students. The letter didn't specify what I was recommending them for, just that it was being done "in conjunction with Black History Month". The letter did not specify whether the students had to be African American, and inquiries sent to the secretary who forwarded the email on behalf of the Vice President were not responded to. My Dean was unable to answer my question in a meeting today.

 

Bizarre, isn't it?

 

I'm not African American so maybe I can't fully understand how they might feel about being singled out like this, but I think I would feel at least mildly insulted -- like I was being told that I was a good student for a black man. To be honest, I doubt most of the African American students really care about Black History Month, or what the school does or does not do in observance of it. But some of them might, I don't know.

 

What do you all think? Am I making a mountain out of a molehill, and should I just shut up and send in a recommendation, or is there a valid concern here?

[GutZ]

errr...thats a difficult one to call, I don't know your enviroment. IF it were ME...I'd probably comment on it and see the response. I don't envy your position.

[Dak]

hmm... if someones academically good enough to be put on a pedastal and made a show-piece of, then they should be good enough to be put on a pedastal and made a show-piece of irreguardless of black-history month; if not, then i dont see how being a quite good student + being black + february should suddenly make them pedastal-worthy

 

otoh, there are alot of people -- both black and white -- who dont see that black people can actually get degrees and be academically successfull i'd imagine: black people with potential who dont bother trying to fulfil it 'cos they dont think they could succede, and white people who think 'them dum negers are stoopid', so i guess for them it's worth actually making a point of showing that black people can succede academically.

 

on the other other hand, if that's the intent, then an exclusively black 'success parade' is a piss-poor way of achieving it: as you say, it could smack of 'good for a black man'; it'd be more useful to parade the best students, reguardless of colour/sex/etc, and just hope that enough of them happen to be black etc that it gets the point across -- 'these are our best, and some of them are black' would be better than 'these are our best black students'. the latter obviously leaves open the possibility that black people aren't as academically good as white people, so need their own category to compete in (like the special olympics)

 

you could allways reccomend your best black students, but ask their permission first, and explain your concerns. that way, they can descide for themselves wether it'd be an honour or an insult. if you wish to make a point to the organisers, then you could allways include the fact that x notable black students declined the option to be reccomended due to the fact that they found it insulting along with your reccomendations.

[Glider]

I have never heard of black history month, so I know nothing about it. However, I do see how this puts you in a difficult position ethically (which puts them in the wrong straight away), and yes, I do think there is a valid concern.

 

As I say, I know nothing about black history month, but my University is London based and has a very ethically mixed student body. I think that if I were asked to 'recommend' one or more of my 'more promising' students (of whatever ethnicity) for anything in something called 'Black History Month' alarm bells would ring and I would want to know exactly what it was for before I did so. Is there a risk that this might be seen as an exercise in tokenism? A kind of 'Look how well our 'ethnic' students are doing' PR thing?

 

I should point out that I work in the Psychology dept. and we are all Psychologists as well as lecturers and so we are bound by the British Psychological Society (BPS) codes of conduct. I think in this situation, I would rely on the BPS guidelines (that way, the University would have very little grounds for argument).

 

I would use the principle of informed consent here. I am, in effect, being asked to 'volunteer' one of my students for something presumably not directly conected to their learning? Well, I don't have the right to do that, but I can ask them to volunteer.

 

For them to volunteer, I am required to provide them with all salient information that would allow them to come to an informed decision and provide (or withold) their consent based upon that decision.

 

If the University does not provide me with the salient information, then I have no right to ask the student(s) to volunteer for anything.

 

As it stands, with the little information you have, you could just talk to your students and see how they feel about it. Tell them what you know and tell them what you don't know and why you don't know it and let them make their own choices.

[Pangloss]

Wow, couple really interesting suggestions there, thanks guys. Dak that bit about being able to point out that the students found it insulting was really clever. I also liked Glider's idea of talking it over with them as a class. It's still awkward, but it puts all the cards on the table and one can never really be ostracized for being honest in forthright, in my experience.

[Bettina]

...many modern African Americans such as Morgan Freeman and Bill Cosby have commented that they're insulted by the whole thing and refuse to participate.

 

That statement, from two respected people, says it all and since I am color blind I would not send in any recommendations or participate in black history month in any way, shape, or form. So, you can either take a stand or follow along.

 

Bettina

[Mokele]

Honestly, something like that would worry me in the extreme, due to the possible implications of a mis-step, not to mention the questionable ethics of the whole thing. I *definitely* would not proceed without *explicit* directions, in writing, from the VP you asked.

 

Because I'm no good at this sort of social stuff, let me recommend something: You know your 'to-do' pile? The one everyone else, with articles you've had for 2 years and still haven't gotten around to reading? You could always just so happen to sort this to the bottom of that pile, and then send an innocent email off around, oh, May-ish, asking if they still want it.

 

Absent-mindedness and laziness can be just as effective as open defiance, with the benefit of seeming accidental.

 

Mokele

[YT2095]

pick someone Chinese or Hispanic instead. they`re unlikely to ask you to choose again next year

 

Or refuse to do it, on the grounds you`ve already outlined here.

[Glider]

It's still awkward, but it puts all the cards on the table and one can never really be ostracized for being honest in forthright, in my experience.

It has always worked in my experience. It also fosters the trust that's supposed to exist between a tutor and students (which makes students more likely to approach their tutor with problems). For the students to be given the opportunity to discuss and decide such things for themselves is also part of the University's role in preparing them for adult (and graduate) life.

 

In my classes, we have a policy of 'What is said in this room, stays in this room'. Whilst obviously I still have to be careful (student will talk, even if only to other students), it does give them a chance to get things off their chests (once they come to trust the system).

 

By the late 1st year, early second year, they are telling me all kinds of things. Usually it's just a chance for them to bitch about things in general, and sometimes other lecturers (that's fine. I'm sure some bitch about me too). Occasionally it'll raise a more serious issue and that gives me a chance to address it and possibly do something about it (whilst protecting the anonymity of the source) before it gets out of hand. More often though, once things are out in the open and subject to feedback from other students, problems just seem to dissolve, which is handy.

 

It also means that if an individual student has a serious problem, they are more likely to come to me with it rather than than just keeping quiet until it overwhelms them.

[Skye]

I'd tell the students what you've been told, and say if any would like to be considered to email or see you.

[Pangloss]

Thanks again for the input. I'm learning quite a lot from this thread.

[JohnB]

If I was the student selected and found out later the selection criteria (and they will find out) I think I'd be more than "mildly" insulted.

 

The worst part is that if your best student is African American then there will always be the thought in the back of his/her mind that maybe they were chosen because of colour rather than on merit.

 

The whole lack of information thing makes the "Award" morally repugnant as well.

 

I'd go with Glider and be open about it to the class. Find out what they think about it.

 

Mind you, Mokele's Machiavellian machinations make for modest malfeasance.

[john5746]

I guess I would go with Glider and Dak's recoommendations. Only ask the students you would recommend, not the whole class.

 

I don't understand why people are so easily offended these days. You can't even do something good for someone anymore. If I was asked for names by the society of women engineers, I don't think I would hesitate, but then maybe that would get me in trouble.

[CPL.Luke]

I would just read the letter that was sent to you to the class, and ask them what they think its possible that this won't earn you any respect from the administration, but it appears that you don't really want to be there anyway, and seeing as they couldn't fire you on those grounds I don't think you have much to worry about (if you were to pursue the above course of action).

[Pangloss]

I've decided to rule out discussing it with the students. Too many pitfalls there. I don't want to make the situation worse. At the moment I'm leaning toward just sending them a few names regardless of race.

 

I wish I had some input on this from an African American professor who supports black history month, just so I could maybe understand their POV.

[JohnB]

That's fair enough too. Give them the top three students regardless of race and see what they do.

 

Having reread the OP I still think the whole thing sounds very suss.

[Glider]

Having reread the OP I still think the whole thing sounds very suss.

It does to me too, so I suppose the best advice would be, whatever you do, be careful.