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Feminist Studies and the Academic Star System Professor Accused of Sexual Harassment On November 10, 1999, student leaders at the University of Hawai‘i were invited to a faculty congress meeting to discuss a proposal to reform the core curriculum. One of the most controversial aspects of the proposal pertained to the language requirement—many faculty members in the sciences vociferously opposed a reduced, but still in place, Hawaiian or second language requirement. The other major controversy concerned a proposed global perspectives requirement. Student leaders and some faculty protested this proposal because it did not ensure a non-Western perspective on non-Western cultures, and because it did not make central a specifically Hawaiian perspective and subject matter. The meeting was heated, with some faculty members even heckling students when they spoke. Tensions present at the meeting had been building all year. Throughout the fall, Hawaiian activists, who had won seats for every important student office, had been forcefully criticizing the colonial nature of the existing core curriculum and demanding that the new core be more responsive to a Hawai‘i—and Hawaiian—student body. Student activism , especially Hawaiian-led student activism, was a new phenomenon for many faculty members who were used to a fairly uninvolved student body. Moreover, faculty members were increasingly at odds with one another as they competed for radically shrinking resources in the face of several years of draconian budget cuts that were themselves symptomatic of a demoralizing lack of public respect and governmental support for the university. So at the meeting, when Pi‘ilani Smith, the president of the Associated Students of the University of Hawai‘i (ASUH), passionately advocated on behalf of a non-Eurocentric Global Perspectives requirement , she encountered palpable resistance, especially when she called attention to the disparate percentages between the student population, which at the time consisted of 85.5 percent people of color, and the faculty and administration, which were 70 percent white, 73 percent male. She noted that the audience reflected those percentages, stating, “I see chApter 4 feminist studies & the academic star system 141 a lot of white, and as a Native woman and a person of color, I’m scared.” At that point a number of faculty members began booing Smith, who concluded her testimony by stating that this behavior supported her assertion about the diversity problems on campus.1 Debates about the language requirements followed, the heat continued to rise, and now we get into the scene that is central to this chapter . My account of what follows draws on the transcript that Mamo Kim shared with me of the press statement that she delivered at a public forum that student leaders organized to protest the events described here.2 Her account matches the descriptions that other student leaders gave at the forum, at subsequent faculty meetings, and in informal communications to me, and it also conforms with accounts by faculty members who wrote in to the faculty senate Listserv. There was little disagreement about what transpired at the faculty senate meeting and its aftermath (an event I did not witness); rather, the debates about these events concern their significance. When a language professor stated that the university’s strategic plan called for diversity and that the study of language provides a way to learn about a culture and its people, one professor we will call B called out, “That’s bullshit! That’s a myth!” After the meeting, Student Caucus Vice-Chair Lance Collins confronted Professor B. He told him that if he discounted the connection between language and culture, “You need to go the fuck back to college and get a fucking education because you missed it the first time.” Collins then left the building, with B following after him, yelling for Collins to stop. Collins refused, demanding to be left alone. B continued his pursuit, accompanied by several other professors . Outside the building Collins told B to “fuck off.” B responded to Collins—who has taken public and often flamboyant positions at the university affirming same-sex relationships—by unfastening his belt buckle and moving toward Collins, shouting, “You want to fuck me? I’ll fuck you. Let’s fuck!” As he kept repeating this threat, Collins began crying and screaming to be left alone. Smith intervened, telling B, “Sir, step back. This is harassment. You are harassing a student. Step back, sir.” B persisted, claiming that it was he who was the victim. Smith reminded B that his belt was undone and...

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