No, Temple, Let's Not Go Back to the Future

Open Letter to Temple’s Black Alumni

I have been waiting for the 32,000 member Temple Black Alumni Association to put out a call for an effective resolution to the ongoing problems plaguing the African American Studies Department, and  to support Dr. Tony Monteiro in his struggle to overcome the constraints and limitations of his year-to-year contract, exacerbated by his recent notification that the contract will not be renewed.  I haven’t heard from the Association, so perhaps it’s time for the Association to hear from me.

Temple's African American Studies Department has been embroiled in controversy for over a decade.  From charges of plagiarism levied against the former (and now current) chair, to a succession of appointments to the chair--some of whom resigned, others who were rejected--has added to the perception of a department adrift.  Instead of a department that is a jewel in the crown of Temple's academic offerings, the goings-on at the department leave the impression of a department in crisis.  Central to most of what has happened over the past decade has been the administrative ineptitude of Dean Theresa Soufas.  Despite the murky origins of the Monteiro contract dispute, her fingerprints are on it, too.

The troubles with the Department of African American Studies only magnify another issue:  the town-and-gown conflict with the North Philadelphia community.The 1960s brought pitched conflict between a Temple University desperate to expand and a local community just as determined not to be pushed out.  The 1970 Temple-Community Agreement brought those battles to an uneasy close.  Now, almost a half-century later, those wounds are being reopened.  The sight of North Philadelphia community members converging on a Temple University Board Meeting, all enraged by Dean Theresa Soufas' remark that there wasn't any black community, should give anyone who cares about Temple pause.  For community members, the non-renewal of Tony Monteiro's contract signals a resumption of the battle for community respect.

My father, Wayne Sylvester Clarke, was the first of his family to go to college. I never found out exactly why he chose Temple, but when I gave him my Temple pin several years before he died at age 91, I wanted to believe that it was because of Russell Conwell’s message:  acres of diamonds.  My dad was not a North Philadelphian—he found Temple  even though he grew up in Red Bank, New Jersey, not far from where Count Basie lived.  My dad never graduated from Temple—I was the first in my family to do that—but I was always proud that in the years between two world wars, my dad found Temple to have a welcoming heart for a black man at a time when not too many institutions did.

In other words, Temple’s mission attracted my father. His aspirations fit perfectly with “The Temple Idea,”  which according to Russell Conwell, [was]  to educate “workingmen and workingwomen on a benevolent basis, at an expense to the students just sufficient to enhance their appreciation of the advantages of the institution.”

My father would not be proud of Temple today.  The contempt expressed by Dean Theresa Soufas for the North Philadelphia community surrounding the campus seems a far cry from what Russell Conwell founded Temple to be.  The fact that a son of North Philadelphia could be treated so shabbily despite his upholding of the “Temple Idea”—not least of which is offering free Saturday classes for the community—is proof positive that Dean Soufas has little knowledge of or appreciation for Temple’s beginnings or purpose.

It also seems intellectually shameful that an African American Studies Department would express a desire to leave behind the study of W.E.B. DuBois, certainly one of the towering social scientists of this or any century.  W.E.B. DuBois practically invented social science not far from Temple’s campus, and this fact and his work should be known, and studied, and spread throughout the city.  Tony Monteiro has been doing this during his entire career at Temple.  For that, Temple owes a debt of gratitude to this son of North Philadelphia – not a cancelled contract.

I did graduate from Temple.  I am an alumna.  I am not pleased with how this situation has been handled and neither am I pleased with how the mission of both Temple and the African American Studies Department seems to be corroding before our eyes.  It is time for the Department to be strengthened, not destroyed; time for the President to recognize and renew the contract of one of the “diamonds” that Russell Conwell insisted were there; and time for Dean Soufas to find another institution to “manage.”  As they say all the time in the private sector:  it just isn’t a good fit.

Finally, it is time for Dr. Tony Monteiro to be placed firmly on a tenure track.

The issues embedded in this struggle are so much bigger than any individual—and have cast a harsh light on the roles, relationships, and responsibilities of Temple’s administration.  Being an alumnus ought to mean more than networking, basketball, and happy hours.  I’m hoping that many of Temple’s black alumni agree with me, and will educate themselves on the issues and speak out.