FA C UL TY & S TU D E N T S
“Word-Banging” Dance? No Dance? or
Why re-imagine? By James A. Chaffers, M.Arch ’69, D.Arch ’71
IN EARLY-SUMMER OF 1993, I returned from a one month stay of research and study in Durban, South Africa. A national policy of Apartheid was in full force. As it would be, I returned to South Africa in the summer of 1995. A new constitution had officially ended Apartheid in 1994 and all conversation referring to intended policies for governing South Africa’s future centered around one of two phrases, ‘anti-Apartheid’ or ‘post-Apartheid.’ Twenty-five years later, I distinctly remember saying to myself that the answer to policies of Apartheid cannot include the word, “Apartheid.” Meaning, something of a conceptual leap would be required to provide a genuine ‘point of departure’ from the old. Fast-forwarding to Taubman 2020, I am disturbed by similar references to “racism.” Specifically, establishing “anti-racism” as a primary principle for going forward. If my assessment is reasonably accurate, ‘our crisis’ will not yield to labels, old or new. Nor, will it yield to ‘convenient thinking’ rooted in new, ‘old words.’ Rather, our old/new task, foremost, will require tapping our Taubman ‘talent well’ in ways never before asked (or imagined). Specifically, I see our task now, as not one of “problem solving”; nor is our present task a question of reordering priorities — reshuffling curriculum, et al. 26
FALL 2020 TAUBMAN COLLEGE
Rather, the overriding challenge at hand becomes one of collectively re-examining and re-defining fundamental aims and purposes. Ultimately … “what is education for,” will surface as the simple question to be answered. A more personal, second question will also arise … “what is education in Taubman for?” Addressing this latter question, each of us sharing unequal love for this College will need to take pause and reflect deeply on what uniquely personal talent we might bring to matters at hand. In any event, in the end, an unprecedented ‘leap in imagination’ coupled with an unprecedented ‘leap in trust’ will be required. In balance with leaps in trust and imaginative dance, there is also need to make parallel leaps in creative thinking. With thinking understood as the ‘insightful dialogue’ we each hold with ourselves. And ‘words,’ as the medium through which we think. Connecting a few dots, what we need for our Taubman task is a trusted shared language. A, “DJA•wordMap” coded with commitments to dream-sharing, Earth-caring, and mutual em(power)ment — a pool of shared word•rhythms for a genuinely new ‘Taubman hip-hop’ to calibrate a genuinely new Taubman Compass.
