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Date: | Fri, 19 May 1995 10:35:18 -0400 |
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Hi. I'm Wendy Harris. I'm an archaeologist with the New York
District Corps of Engineers. This is my first message on Hist
Arch so please bear with me.
I am writing today to ask all of you to join your colleagues
in New York City in saving the Anthropology Department at
City College (aka CCNY - one of a number a colleges in CUNY,
the City University of New York). As you may be aware, CUNY
is under assault by Mayor Rudolf Guliani and Governor George
Pataki who are seeking to close the city's budget gap
by cutting jobs, tuition aid, and entire academic programs.
Recently a retrenchment committee at City College proposed to
eliminate several departments - one of which is Anthropology.
Ironically, the president of CCNY is Yolanda Moses, an
anthropologist who is also the President-elect of the American
Anthropological Association.
It now looks as if three social anthropologists on the faculty
will be relocated to another department as some sort of
anthropology "unit." However no such provisions have so far
been made for the remaining faculty consisting of a linguist,
a physical anthropologist and an archaeologist. Diana diZ. Wall
is the archaeologist in question. She is also the only person in
the entire CUNY system who teaches historical archaeology courses
and field schools.
There is still time to preserve the archaeology line as well as
the department itself but only if many of us act now. To express
your concern please contact Yolanda Moses, CCNY's president at
the following:
fax (212) 650 7680
In writing President Moses, we suggest that you adopt a positive
and non-confrontational tone. You might want to stress the fact
that anthropology is a four-field discipline, and that among the
four disciplines archaeology plays a critical role in offering a
liberal arts education to lower income college students. It is
also important to remind her that historical archaeology provides
hands-on research and field experience to these students - an
experience that is available only in a department such as CCNY's,
with its focus on local history and prehistory.
We also recommend contacting Jack Cornman who is the director of
the American Anthropological Association. His number is
(703) 528-1902. He has told us that he is aware of the situation
and that the current AAA president, James Peacock is writing Dr.
Moses. Knowing that AAA has the support of the archaeological
community in this matter would assure continued action.
Also - if any of you have access to the presidents of SHA and
regional archaeological societies, it would be great if you could
alert them via the internet or by other means.
It is important that this be done as soon as possible. Thanks
for your time.
Wendy Harris
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