Five days before OU announced it would not close the Clara Luper Department of African and African American Studies, Dodge Family College of Arts and Sciences leaders were discussing dissolving the program.
Through documents obtained via open records request, the Daily received a total of 10 emails — spanning from Sept. 29 to Oct. 2 — containing correspondence between College of Arts and Sciences Dean Michael Markham, Senior Vice President and Provost André-Denis Wright and African and African American Studies faculty, detailing the College of Art and Sciences’ concerns for the Department of African and African American Studies.
According to the documents, Markham met with department faculty on Sept. 26 to consider the future of the department.
Dean of Dodge Family College of Arts and Sciences Michael Markham during interview on July 1.
Chair of the Department of African and African American Studies Greg Graham wrote in a Sept. 29 email to Markham, African and African American Studies professor emeritus Jeanette Davidson and all department faculty that the Sept. 26 meeting confirmed what had been relayed in his previous discussions with Kelvin White, College of Arts and Sciences senior associate dean, and Greg Burge, associate dean for Academic Programs.
“The leadership of the DFCAS has concluded that despite our ongoing effort at restructuring for growth and efficiency, AFAM is not salvageable as an academic department, in their view,” the Sept. 29 email from Graham read.
Graham wrote in the email that the college leadership anticipated the OU Board of Regents would dissolve the program due to its failure to meet a required average of five graduates over the past five years.
“The danger as it was presented in the meeting, is that if the Regents were to get involved, it could result in the loss of jobs for faculty,” Graham wrote.
In the 2015-16 academic year, nine bachelor’s degrees were awarded to students enrolled in the African and African American Studies department, with that number falling to two in the 2020-21 academic year, according to OU’s Institutional Research and Reporting office. The department awarded three bachelor’s degrees in the 2024-25 academic year.
According to Graham’s Sept. 29 email, Markham's solution to avoid the loss of jobs would be to “dismantle the department and disperse faculty members into separate academic departments that fit with their respective areas of academic specialization.” Graham clarified that this dismantling would be voted on by faculty.
“The situation we are presented with as faculty in effect is one where we are voting on this matter – however it will be defined — with the threat of potential unemployment looming further down the road if we opt not to dissolve,” the email read.
Markham also presented the option of turning the African and African American Studies curriculum into a “no-cost program.” According to an Oct. 2 email from Markham to department faculty, the regents allow low-enrollment programs to continue if most of the courses required also serve other academic programs.
“It can be considered a no-cost program because those courses would be taught anyway for the other programs,” Markham’s email read. “Something like that could work an AFAM degree under an interdepartmental program if the courses for the AFAM degree were cross-listed for example PSC/AFAM, HIST/AFAM, ENGL/AFAM, etc.”
OU Marketing and Communications wrote to the Daily that a “no-cost” program is a program where all the courses are also part of other degrees, so no additional courses need to be taught to get a degree from the program and no extra costs are incurred.
Markham wrote in the Oct. 2 email that while there was not a deadline for the decision, making a decision by mid-to-late November would allow the college to share proposed changes on the regents’ January or March meeting agenda.
According to Graham’s Sept. 29 email, department faculty raised concerns about potential public fallout from the move.
“Oklahoma is currently in a period in which significant undertakings are underway to honor Clara Luper and to highlight the rich legacy of civil rights activism in the state. Those invested will surely take note of the flagship university in the state undertaking the dissolution of a department named after Luper, …” Graham’s email read. “This is certain to be a matter that receives local as well as national attention.”
Clara Luper, one of the University of Oklahoma's first black students.
The installation of a $3.6 million, 8,000-pound sculpture in Clara Luper National Sit-in Plaza in downtown Oklahoma City began in late September. The statue commemorates the 1958 Katz Drug Store sit-in.
In the Sept. 29 email, Graham noted that during the Sept. 26 meeting, he and others expressed to Markham their concerns that reducing the department would result in its total dissolution due to political motivations.
“Dean Markham was made aware of our unease with what we perceive to be a rush to eventually do away with the AFAM academic program entirely given the current political climate,” Graham wrote.
An African and African American Studies faculty meeting where members would further discuss the potential dissolution was set for Oct. 6, according to the Sept. 29 email. Wright also had plans to meet with department faculty during the week of Oct. 5.
Background
On Oct. 2, The Black Wall Street Times released a report saying the university was moving toward dismantling the department. The Daily contacted 16 sources in the OU and Norman community that evening with little response.
Shortly after The Black Wall Street Times’ article was posted, Kalenda Eaton, a professor of African and African American Studies, sent an email to Wright with the article attached.
“This article was just forwarded to me, and I am not on Facebook, but I was told this topic has gone viral on social media, also,” Eaton wrote. “The 5 (out of 6) active members of the department had no idea about any of this. I wanted to give you a heads up.”
The Daily contacted OU Regent Rick Nagel the night of Oct. 2, who told OU Daily he hadn’t heard anything that would suggest the department was closing.
“People don't cancel programs unless it comes before the (Board of Regents). That has not come before the board,” Nagel said. “I can never speak for the whole board, but that would be a hard thing to get through. … That's not something we're gonna do.”
In a second call with the Daily later that night, Nagel said he reached out to the OU Board of Regents’ office and contacts there told him there were no plans to cut the department.
Regent Rick Nagel during the OU Board of Regents meeting on June 12.
The following day, Wright released a statement confirming the Clara Luper Department of African and African American Studies and the Schusterman Center for Judaic and Israel Studies were not closing but had been the subject of review.
“The University of Oklahoma is not closing the Clara Luper Department of African and African American Studies or the Schusterman Center’s Judaic and Israel Studies or their programs,” the statement read. “Review of both degree programs was triggered by a routine, multi-step evaluation of the university’s 300+ programs conducted under State Regents provisions.”
The African and African American Studies department is not the first to experience review within the College of Arts and Sciences, which is OU’s largest college with 33% of the total student population.
In November 2024, the OU Provost’s Office conducted a review of the foreign language requirements for the College of Arts and Sciences.
At the time, Randall Hewes, then-interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, confirmed the language requirement within the college was under review. Wright told the Daily following the April Board of Regents meeting that the evaluation had been completed and he would soon look at the recommendation. In an October email to the Daily, Markham wrote that the College of Arts and Sciences’ review was ongoing.
During the November Board of Regents meeting, the board approved removing the stand-alone Arabic, Chinese, French, German and Italian degree programs. These programs were replaced by language-specific concentrations within the Bachelor of Arts in World Languages and Cultures degree.
This story was edited by Ana Barboza and Thomas Pablo. Mary Ann Livingood and Ryan Little copy edited this story.
