Mengzi Mixup

BOSTON - The path to the East slams shut at the door to Miner Hall.

This is the lesson I've learned with my recent dealings with the Tufts Philosophy department. My time here is winding down, and that means I'm take care of my final degree requirements and assorted paperwork. This has meant in the past couple weeks I've been trying to get credits from courses I took in Hong Kong approved to count toward my diploma. This has in general been an easy process: complete a form online with the course name and a short description, and three or four days later, it shows up on your transcript.

I did receive one surprise. While in Hong Kong, I took several philosophy courses. Philosophy is not my major, but I'm interested in the subject and considered it as a field of study for a time. At Hong Kong University I was fortunate to take a class in the fall on Mencius (孟子), the famous Confucian scholar. He's often referred to as the "first Chinese philosopher" or the "founder of Chinese philosophy." Not according to Tufts philosophy Department: my petition for credit was denied.

This is a school that recently flew its president, Provost and Board of Overseers for a two week schmooze-fest around Mumbai and Delhi, and is constantly releasing press releases with quotes emphasizing that Tufts is trying "“advance its international mission,"” and be at the forefront global citizenship and leadership. (You can reach more about that trip here: http://www.tuftsobserver.org/news/20051209/tufts_in_incredible_india.html)

Tufts is supposed to be a bastion of liberal thought and diversity. There is a mandatory world civilization requirement, and all students are required to take six classes on foreign language and culture. We have dozens of Asian groups -- even a Gamelan Ensemble. But too often, these initiatives aren't evenly distributed around the university. The more activists push for superfluous actions like an Asian-American Studies major and censuring Google for its operation in China, the more suspicious the rest of the university the becomes. The result is unfortunate: "traditional disciplines" retreat into their own fiefdoms.

I mentioned this to my adviser -- who is a professor specializing in Chinese politics in the Political Science Department -- and she didn't seem surprised. "They should really call it the Department of Western philosophy," she said.

I don't disagree.