KENNESAW - The creation of a new department at Kennesaw State University that would house various racial, gender and environmental programs has come under fire from one longtime KSU professor who sees it as a hive for radical indoctrination.

In the next month or so, KSU Interim Provost Dr. Ken Harmon will determine whether to greenlight a new department within KSU's College of Humanities and Social Sciences called The Department of Cultural and Regional Studies. That department would have seven academic programs under its banner: African and African Diaspora Studies, Gender and Women's Studies, Environmental Studies, Asian Studies, Latin American Studies, Peace Studies and American Studies.

"This is being put together by a bunch of activists," said Dr. Melvyn Fein, a tenured professor of sociology at KSU. "These folks do not have degrees in what they pretend to teach. To call it neo-Marxist is being very modest. These are activists who are going to use this to try and indoctrinate instead of teach."

But Arlethia Perry-Johnson, KSU's vice president for external affairs, said the seven programs that would make up the new department already exist at KSU, and the proposal is to simply consolidate them into one department. Bringing together professors who teach similar subject matter creates synergies and aides in communication, she said.

For example, at present, part of the Environmental Studies program is housed in KSU's College of Humanities and part of it is housed in KSU's College of Science and Mathematics, because students take courses offered by both colleges to shape their degree, based on whether their focus is more policy or science oriented, she said.

Perry-Johnson said the proposal for the new department has been created by the coordinators of each of the seven programs in question.

They are: Dr. Jesse J. Benjamin, associate professor of sociology, (African and African Diaspora Studies); Dr. Susan M. Rouse, professor of philosophy, (American Studies); Dr. May H. Gao, associate professor of communication, (Asian Studies); Dr. Mark W. Patterson, associate professor of geography, (Environmental Studies); Dr. R. Ugena Whitlock, associate professor of education and gender studies, (Gender and Women's Studies); Dr. Ernesto Silva, assistant professor of Spanish, (Latin American Studies); and Thomas M. Pynn, assistant professor of philosophy, (peace studies).

Pynn recently introduced KSU President Dan Papp at an event where he described "The Communist Manifesto" by Karl Marx as "a call to conscience."

Although the Journal requested comment from any one of the seven professors listed above, Perry-Johnson said it would be inappropriate for them to comment since the proposal was at the provost level.

Fein accused the professors in question of trying to push through subject matter in the proposed new department that they have failed to get approved in existing departments. Once the new department is created, Fein said it would intrude on courses taught in other departments, by claiming to have a stake in them.

"It's going to be detrimental to the reputation of the university as a serious school," Fein said.

There's a reason why programs such as women's studies are on the decline nationwide, he said.

"Departments are closing around the country because students have learned, among other things, that if they want to get a job they shouldn't major in them. If your major is in women's studies, any employer who hires you is crazy. You're hiring a lawsuit, for heaven's sake," Fein said.

Among the subjects offered under the Gender and Women's Studies program, according to KSU's website, are Gender in Popular Culture, Transnational Feminisms, Black Feminisms, and "Queer Theory & Sexuality." The latter describes itself as "an interdisciplinary course that considers the global emergence and significance of theories and practices that 1) refute and destabilize the notion of an essential, normative sexuality and gender, and 2) suggest that sexuality is fluid and varied and is constructed by social, political, and economic factors."

Perry-Johnson said the new department is not expected to incur any additional cost to KSU since no additional faculty are expected to be hired to run it. Moreover, she said the proposal has already gone through two sets of votes by those faculty who would be involved. Faculty from the departments impacted voted 33-4 in January to authorize the initiation of discussing such a proposal.

A New York University consultant, Dr. Mary Louise Pratt, came to KSU in January to give advice for the program. She was paid $3,309 for her work.

Faculty then voted, 49-6 in favor of creating the program in a referendum from March 21 to 23.

Perry-Johnson also said Fein should have followed the chain of command in airing his concerns about the proposal.

"If his goal is to confer about his concerns and his opposition, the process exists for him to be able to do that in a manner that would have impact, rather than using the newspaper as a bully pulpit, when in fact his colleagues are here and open and accessible to him," Perry-Johnson said.

But Fein said he has made use of the chain of command, asking to speak with Papp, at which time he was referred to Interim Provost Ken Harmon.

Harmon said he looks forward to meeting with Fein and hearing his concerns. Once Harmon makes his recommendation, he will take it to Papp, who did not return calls for this article.