The Commnity and Multicultural Development Office wants PA students to know that class matters. This year, Linda Griffith, Dean of CAMD, has tried to open a campus-wide dialogue on socioeconomic issues, which will serve as CAMD’s overarching theme of the 2009-2010 school year. According to Griffith, Andover has never devoted such attention to the impact of class. “Common consensus seemed to be that students feel that race, sexuality and gender are discussed well, but the issue of class has been largely ignored,” said Griffith. Headed by Griffith and emphasized through several guest speakers and presentations, “Class Matters,” will be the title of this year’s ongoing dialogue. “The intent is to raise awareness and to remove the invisibility of the impact of class on our identity values and life experience,” said Griffith. “It’s that invisible difference, and it effects our lives and our experiences at Andover,” she continued. Griffith said that the goal for this year’s discussions is to move the student body beyond several common misconceptions. “We want to get beyond money, and talk about how class informs cultural identity,” she said. “Many students associate race with class. I want to get beyond that,” continued Griffith. According to Griffith, class is a multifaceted issue, made up of income, wealth, cultural capital and social capital. Although most students understand income and wealth, cultural and social capital are generally misunderstood, she said. “Cultural capital is what you know, and social capital is who you know,” said Griffith. These two aspects of class will be some of the focuses of the dialogues this year, she said. The faculty heard from Griffith and a committee of faculty members on Monday night on the initiative. “Talking about class should be just like talking about race, gender and religion. [The new dialogue] will help us think about questions like where we come from, what we do, what we perceive in ourselves and others,” said Lixia Ma, Instructor in Chinese, one of the faculty members present at the meeting. “I’m pleased to see the faculty tackle issues associated with class differences. Although we’ve come a long way from the days when financial aid students were waiters in the dining hall, I think we have much to learn as far as making success at Andover a reality for all students,” said Patrick Farrell, Instructor in Mathematics. The update in the faculty meeting followed Samuel Betances’ presentation to the faculty on class impact on academic achievement earlier this year. Betances, author and sociologist, spoke about how different class backgrounds can affect students’ future accomplishments. Paul Farmer, chairman of Harvard Medical School’s Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Barbara Ehrenreich and Alfred Lubrano will also speak on class later this year. Griffith said that Farmer will be a wellness week speaker in November, but his presentation will tie in to the class dialogue for the year. Farmer will speak about the socioeconomic issues related to health care. Farmer is the founder of Partners In Health, an international health and social justice organization. Ehrenreich is an author of several books, most notably Nickel and Dimed, in which she took several minimum wage jobs and wrote about her experience. A third speaker will be Alfred Lubrano, another socioecological writer, scheduled to visit spring term. Bijan Torabi ’10 is a CAMD scholar and will be presenting on class at Andover. His presentation is titled Cultural Capital at Andover and at Large. “I thought [class] was a crucial topic which had to be addressed,” he said. “We are hoping for student conversations to develop organically based off of our prompts,” said Griffith. Griffith said that she is hoping conversations in dorms, and several student clubs, will raise awareness. “[CAMD] decided in the spring to make class a specific dialogue of the 2009-2010 school year, and then this summer I gathered several student testimonies,” said Griffith.
