The Task Force on Undergraduate Education welcomed Rakim Brooks '09 to its ranks late last month as another student stepped down from his position.
Brooks replaced Kumar Vasudevan '08 as one of the three student members of the task force, said Sara Damiano '08, academic and administrative affairs chair on the Undergraduate Council of Students. The committee was concerned with filling the "void" left by Vasudevan's departure, added Damian, who was responsible for selecting the students on the committee.
Vasudevan said he turned down a seat on the task force because another project he was involved with - which he had expected to fall through - was green-lighted in late March. Though he said he could not provide specific details because the project is still in the planning stage, Vasudevan said he was working with the Swearer Center for Public Service and Providence community groups.
"It wasn't a question of if I wanted to be on the committee - it was a question of time," Vasudevan said. "I didn't want to split my time, give half my time to either project," he added.
Damiano said Vasudevan was replaced about a week after the initial selections were made, and the change was announced at UCS's last general meeting before spring break.
The task force was announced March 1 in a campus-wide e-mail from Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron and Provost David Kertzer '69 P'95 P'98. The committee, which will undertake a broad review of the College and its curriculum, comprises 13 members, including 10 faculty members, two of whom are also members of the University administration.
"One of the insights I'm hoping to bring (to the task force) is that I'm definitely concerned about how any academic changes will affect minority students on campus," Brooks said, adding that he is also concerned with concentration advising, especially in larger departments.
For Brooks, the task force's "re-evaluation of the New Curriculum" raises questions of incorporating the spirit of activism in which the curriculum was created throughout the undergraduate program.
With programs such as Africana studies emerging out of what Brooks characterized as "a moment of activism in our country," he said he is concerned with the "extent to which the knowledge and discourses (of these programs) have been included and incorporated into the general curriculum at Brown."
Damiano said Brooks' concentration in history "brings knowledge of what it's like to be a concentrator in a large department."
