During the autumn, the headquarters staff inevitably concentrates heavily on supporting the work of the three divisional committees of the Association. In last month’s Perspectives we reported on the meeting of the Research Division. In this issue we can report on the meetings of the Teaching and the Professional divisions, which followed hard on the heels of Research.
The Teaching Division held its one-and-a-half day meeting in Durham, NC, so that it could devote the major part of its time to a “Workshop on Recruiting Afro-Americans for Graduate Education in History.” The Division is deeply concerned over the statistical data indicating that a steady decline in the number of Blacks and other minorities is occurring in graduate schools. Since graduate study is the pipeline for the supply of teachers, and the ratio of minority teachers in the schools and colleges is already far below demographic proportions among the student population, the shrinking of the future supply is bound to accelerate further in coming years. The concurrent annual meeting in Durham of the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History provided a valuable opportunity for the Division to hold its workshop there.
The day-long meeting focused on the many problems in attracting Black students to graduate programs. Four current graduate students shared their experiences and made suggestions, following a keynote address by Professor Nell I. Painter (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill) and a discussion led by Professor Darlene Clark Hine (Michigan State) and Professor Sharon Harley (University of Maryland, College Park). Professor Robert L. Harris (Cornell) added his experience to that of Hine. The impact of their two programs on Cornell and Purdue Universities was judged to be very important.
Although the workshop acknowledged the important role of finances, its conclusions focused on things more in our power to change. Vice-President for the Teaching Division, Patricia Albjerg Graham (Harvard) summarized a number of concrete steps that could be taken by the Division and the AHA that lie within our available resources. Members will be seeing some of these steps in future articles in Perspectives. A key element to improvement is in heightening the awareness of teaching members to the importance of an active role in encouraging promising minority students.
Other business transacted by the Division included the discussion of possible sessions for the 1988 annual meeting, to sponsor examination of the progress of two studies of the position of history in the schools, and approval of guidelines for the American Historical Association Award for Teaching, which will be presented for the first time in 1988.
The Professional Division Committee met on October 24, chaired by Vice President John J. TePaske. The principal items on its agenda grew out of the Statement of Standards of Professional Conduct for historians, drafted by the Division and approved by the Council last May. Discussion was focused first on developing standard procedures and policies for handling breaches of standards and complaints brought to the Association, taking into consideration the interest of other organizations in major elements of the document. The policies and procedures draft will be brought to the Council for its endorsement. A number of specific cases were discussed and further action mandated by the Division.
The Division also planned several sessions for future annual meetings, approved the Research Division’s draft guidelines for program committees, and recommended to the Council a change in the title of the Association’s Special Assistant for Women’s and Minorities’ Affairs to Assistant Director.
Headquarters staff representatives participated in a final conference scheduled by Project ’87, the American Political Science Association–American Historical Association cooperative endeavor celebrating the bicentennial of the Constitution. This conference was held at Williamsburg, presided over by its chief organizer, Project ’87 co-chair James McGregor Burns, and focused on the theme “Mr. Madison’s Constitution and the Twenty-first Century.” The conference concluded with a final meeting of the joint AHA/APSA committee of Project ’87.
Apart from the divisional committee meetings and the Williamsburg conference of Project ’87, the principal concern of the headquarters staff has been the completion of a major grant proposal submitted to the National Endowment for the Humanities at the beginning of November. As members recall, the Association is proposing a very large undertaking in the preparation of a new edition of its classic Guide to Historical Literature. Substantial support by the Endowment is crucial to the project, which will also require assistance from other foundations. The quality of the grant proposal is most important for such a major and high priority undertaking, but we are satisfied that we have met our own high standards.
