Some describe it as a castle. The immense, four-story brick building on the corner of Fifth and Daniel streets with its several gables, walled patio and heavy, wooden front door was once a fraternity house. Since 1994, it has been home to a different kind of community — the Graduate School of Library and Information Science, or GSLIS — one of the nation’s best library and information science schools, according to U.S. News and World Report.

But in recent years, not everyone has felt at home in the graduate school.

On Jan. 16, Nathaniel Moore, former graduate student, and three other graduate students — David Ellenwood, Anna Henry and Damon McGhee — submitted a memo to the GSLIS curriculum committee. The memo detailed their concerns about a lack of diverse perspectives in a course called Global Perspectives in Library and Information Science.

The students, who were all completing master’s degrees in both African studies and library and information science, were required to take the Global Perspectives course as part of a joint degree program established in 2009. According to the memo, the course perspective was “Eurocentric” and “reinforced by the overwhelming presence of European and American guest speakers, readings, authors, and topics included in the syllabus.”

“The four joint degree students in this class all were met with a subtle yet obvious refusal to engage, acknowledge or discuss colonialism as one of the key processes in shaping global hierarchies,” the memo read.

h2. First steps

On Jan. 20, Linda Smith, associate dean of GSLIS, and Maimouna Barro, associate director of the Center for African Studies, met with the four students. Terry Weech, then-chair of the curriculum committee and professor of the course, and Alistair Black, curriculum committee member and professor in GSLIS, were also present at the meeting.

Smith said they met to discuss the students’ concerns before bringing the issue to the entire committee at its meeting Feb. 16. It was at that meeting that the four joint degree graduate students, along with three other students, offered to help revise the curriculum.

Smith chaired the portion of the February meeting that dealt with the memo in place of Weech. Weech’s involvement in both the Global Perspectives course and the curriculum committee was a particular sore spot for some of the students.

Moore said some students became visibly upset during meetings with the committee, and two walked out of at least one meeting in frustration with the process.

“Emotions ran high (throughout the process),” Smith said. “I won’t say it was handled as smoothly as the students would have liked.”

One reason the issue “escalated,” according to Smith, was that students did not follow formal protocol, and when they were asked to do so, they felt they were being dismissed.

Kate McDowell, assistant professor of GSLIS, said the committee could have done more to address the students’ concerns.

“We will be better in the future,” she said. “We already are better.”

h2. Crafting a new curriculum

After meeting on several occasions over the next two months and briefing the curriculum committee on their progress, the students submitted a proposal for a revised course on April 13.

“When I saw the proposed syllabus, I thought, ‘This is great — this is a cultural literacy syllabus!’” said McDowell, member of the curriculum committee last spring.

McDowell said she was even willing to teach the course but acknowledged that she might not be best-suited.

In August, Smith met with Barro to discuss goals for the new course, and in September, she recruited Rae-Anne Montague, assistant dean in GSLIS, to teach it in the spring.

Montague has international experience from working for seven years as a teacher and librarian in Mexico. She said she was grateful to have the “thoughtful and valuable” input from the students’ proposed syllabus, but she also wanted to leave room for flexibility in the syllabus.

“It’s kind of like a big puzzle; that’s kind of how I’m seeing it at the moment,” Montague said.

h2. Broader concerns within department

In a GSLIS town hall meeting on Apr. 20, students brought up their issues with the diversity in the school and what John Unsworth, dean of GSLIS, called “unexamined cultural issues.”

These concerns touched off a series of efforts within GSLIS to make the community more diverse and culturally sensitive, including changes to the Global Perspectives course.

McDowell said allegations of racism result from “silences” and “omissions.”

“We can’t have a multiracial society until we can have multiracial conversations,” McDowell said. “There isn’t a language to address race issues, so when a student brings a criticism, the professor is silent because they don’t know how to talk about it.”

“The dean has been very proactive in wanting to resolve these issues, and he has taken it very seriously,” said Christine Hopper, assistant to dean of GSLIS.

At the meeting, several students said they wanted issues of diversity to be discussed in the context of GSLIS’s strategic direction for the next five years. Unsworth responded to concerns about racism, saying any discussion of the issues would need to involve the entire GSLIS community at a later date. At the time, Moore said it was another dismissal in a pattern of the administration’s failures to address the issue.

“Are you insinuating that this hasn’t been brought to the attention of the administration before and that there haven’t been numerous spaces where there’s been an opportunity to talk about these issues and when students have brought these concerns they’ve either been dismissed or ignored?” Moore asked Unsworth.

“No … I’m aware that this is an issue that surfaced (in the curriculum committee about the course), but I have not heard a more general statement about that,” Unsworth said. “I haven’t heard lots of people say that this is a broader problem in GSLIS.”

Unsworth is in Japan until Dec. 6 and could not be reached for comment, but Hopper said he has implemented a diversity task force and will continue to hold town hall meetings once a semester to allow students to voice any concerns.

Following the Apr. 20 meeting, Unsworth scheduled a day of discussions and a second town hall meeting on May 5. These discussions mediated by diversity consultant Tracie Hall, concentrated on various groups, including faculty, staff, the GSLIS curriculum committee, students and students of color. The entire GSLIS community was invited to attend the second town hall meeting.

h2. Moving forward

Following the town hall meetings and discussions, Unsworth sent a report Aug. 23 to all GSLIS members that detailed six working groups and 10 high priority “next steps” for improving diversity and cultural climate, including development of a “more transparent and inclusive process for identifying and pursuing faculty hiring priorities, including diversity.”

This year, according to the Division of Management Information, only two GSLIS academic staff members out of 89 identified themselves as Native American & Alaskan Native, Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander, Hispanic/Latino or African American. Since 2002 to 2003, that has been the maximum amount of underrepresented minorities on the GSLIS academic staff.

Across the board, just under eight percent of the University academic staff is of an underrepresented minority, an increase since 2002 to 2003 of more than nine percent or nearly 660 people.

While the proportion of minority students has remained steady, within GSLIS that number has increased from about six percent to nearly nine percent since 2001.

h2. ‘A better learning environment for all of us’

Linda Smith, associate dean of GSLIS, said the discussions last spring helped her to better understand that the process of creating an inclusive environment does not end with providing access.

“I have a greater appreciation that it’s not just enough to get (diverse students) in the door,” Smith said. “It’s not just about being welcoming, but it needs to be more purposeful in creating a supportive environment and a better learning environment for all of us.”

She said GSLIS is looking more systematically across its curriculum to try to give more complete perspectives. This fall, GSLIS faculty and staff attended workshops put on by the Office of Equal Opportunity and Access, and Smith said diversity is now being treated as a priority of a faculty search that is currently underway.

McDowell said that in addition to creating the diversity task force, GSLIS is working to clarify both the processes through which students voice their complaints and the curriculum committee processes.

“Every school needs to have a good way to address grievances without pitting students against professors, for instance,” she said. “The more transparency, the better for students.”

As a way of keeping productive discussions about race going, McDowell and graduate student Miriam Sweeney began leading a meeting called “Reading Around Race” every other Friday throughout the fall semester. She said she wanted to lead the group as a way of trying to understand issues of race, racism and the use of whiteness as a model of normality.

“I wanted to know how we can speak compassionately about race,” McDowell said. “What I value most about what the students did is that they created an opportunity for a conversation.”

Weech could not be reached for comment on this article. Despite repeated requests, Henry, Moore and McGhee refused to comment for this article.