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University center will fund research and provide data

Friday, December 13, 2002

By Jane Elizabeth, Post-Gazette Education Writer

As the University of Pittsburgh continues to investigate an apparent racial incident involving a black professor, administrators yesterday announced the official opening of Pitt's new Center on Race and Social Problems.

The center, part of the School of Social Work, is headed by the school's dean, Larry E. Davis, and located in several offices on the 20th floor of the Cathedral of Learning.

The center's goals are to fund and develop race-related research projects, provide data and technical assistance to regional groups, and to train students in such projects.

"The time was right," said Davis, who called the campus "a welcoming place" and gave much credit for the center's development to Provost James Maher and Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg.

Last month's incident in the university's public health building "underscores the need for this center," Nordenberg said yesterday in response to a reporter's question.

In that case, Stefan Wheelock, a 31-year-old assistant professor of English, arrived to teach his class on Nov. 21 and found a miniature noose behind his lectern, next to a copy of the "Invisible Man" by African-American author Ralph Ellison.

Wheelock, who described his reaction as "shocked and horrified," changed his lecture that evening to tell his class about the history of the noose and its role in the lynching of blacks.

Campus police have been investigating the incident, and yesterday, Pitt spokesman Robert Hill said that the FBI also is assisting in the investigation.

Nordenberg yesterday said, "It is clear that the incident serves as a reminder that racism and its products live among us."

Nordenberg also evoked the words of Ralph Ellison: "Let man keep his many parts and you'll have no tyrant states."

Davis, a former professor at Washington University in St. Louis who came to Pitt 16 months ago with the idea to create the center, has written extensively on race, gender and class.

He already has presented a program as part of the center's work, called "Predicting Positive Academic Intentions Among African American Males and Females."

Ralph Bangs, who is the center's associate director, also is the co-director of the urban and regional analysis program in Pitt's University Center for Social and Urban Research.

The Center on Race and Social Problems will work with other departments around the university and other organizations around the region. On its advisory committee are faculty members from the schools of public health, nursing, and law; and the departments of psychology and behavioral and community health sciences.

The center has been funded by the university for three years. Hill said he could not give a precise budget figure because most of the research staffers come from other departments and also have other duties; therefore, "the budget hasn't been costed out that neatly."

Nordenberg and Davis said grants and private funding will be sought for research and other programs.

Research advisory panels -- called "RAP groups," Davis said -- will help make decisions on which topics the center will study.

And anyone conducting research "will be asked to go beyond explanation and will be asked to find solutions," he said.

Research projects will revolve around five social problems "that are caused or exacerbated by race," Davis said. They are economic and educational disparities, interracial group relations, mental health practices and outcomes, criminal justice, and youth, families and the elderly.

Pitt administrators said the center is unique because it's the only center of its kind located in a school of social work and that it will look at issues involving all races, not solely African Americans.

Nordenberg noted that people of color currently make up about 30 percent of the nation's population, and the estimate in 50 years is about 50 percent.

"Clearly we need more knowledge ... to help us understand and intelligently address the work of racial disparity," said Nordenberg.

With the University of Pittsburgh's reputation for quality research, he said, the campus "is uniquely positioned to do some of the heavy lifting to advance this cause."

The center has established a Web site at www.pitt.edu/~pittssw/crsp/crsp.html