By Aimee Glocke
I would like to comment on the Viewpoint submissions that were
published in the Daily Bruin regarding the addition of a diversity
general education requirement (The Forum, Viewpoint, May 26). As a
graduate from a university system that required a general education
component in either women’s studies or racial and ethnic
studies in order to graduate, I can relate personal experience to
many of the issues that are currently being debated.
I have spent most of my life in La Crosse, Wisconsin. After
having lived in London for the summer, I moved here in September to
pursue my master’s in African American studies. The
university system in Wisconsin is very similar to the system in
California.
I spent one year at the University of Wisconsin, Superior, and
finished my last three years at the University of Wisconsin, La
Crosse (two hours outside Madison). There was a mandatory diversity
requirement for graduation that students had to complete a certain
class in either women’s studies or racial and ethnic
studies.
This was a requirement no matter what college or school you were
from. Many different professors taught this class, but all sections
covered the same material. I can only speak for the racial and
ethnic studies class (since that was the one that I took), but it
was on cultural issues that Native Americans, Asian Americans,
African Americans, Irish Americans, European Americans, and
Latinas/os deal with. This class was inclusive of all different
racial and ethnic groups.
This type of class did not inhibit anyone from graduating in
four years. It was also not a class that included
“white” or “male” bashing since Europeans
were included within the class curriculum as well.
What this class did was force my campus, which had a population
of 10 percent students of color, to interact with people of other
cultures. When I was there, we had about 8,000 students on campus,
meaning only 800 were students of color. In a situation like this,
students tend to stick to their own ethnic groups. Is that their
fault?
Is it an African American student’s fault that another
student only has friends who are white because the white student
expects the African American student to seek them out for diverse
interaction? We all have to step out of our “comfort
zones” and interact with people of all different ethnic
groups. Is it the student of color’s job to teach everyone
about his or her culture? No. It is all of our responsibilities to
learn about each other.
Another great advantage to the diversity requirement was that
not only did the students have to attend class, but attendance at
one diversity event offered on campus was also mandatory. This got
the students out of the classroom and into real life. We go to a
university. We are expected to graduate knowing a diverse range of
subjects: math, science English. If we did not want this, then we
should have gone to a technical college. But we chose a university,
and learning diversity does not only mean math and science, it
means learning about each other as well.
Being a white student in African American studies, I have
dedicated my life to teaching myself and others about diversity.
When I first moved to California, I expected it to be a haven of
diversity and open-mindedness. The more time that I spend here, the
more I do not see it. I did not see it with the passing of
Propositions 21 and 22 and I do not see it within the debate for
why there should be a diversity component in the general education
requirements. Why is there a debate?
We are here to learn as much as we can about as many different
subjects as possible. So adding another requirement makes all of us
better and more well-rounded students. I took the racial and ethnic
studies class knowing most of the information about African
Americans, but still learned many different things about Native
Americans and Asian Americans that I had not known before. This
requirement forces us to learn about things that we may think we
know, but do not.
It makes me wonder why a place such as Wisconsin, which lacks
diversity and has an abundance of racism and hate crimes, has a
university diversity requirement with no debate. Here in
California, where the façade of acceptance and understanding
seems to be a public consensus, adding this requirement has become
a huge debate. It makes me wonder why, since I cannot think of one
legitimate reason why such a requirement should not go into effect.
It also makes me realize that this place called California gives
off a great façade of diversity, but that’s it.
The number of students of color have drastically dropped. Should
their voices be abolished too? Requiring everyone to learn about
other cultures lets those who do not have a voice on this campus to
speak about their experiences.
After the abolishment of affirmative action, the UC system
showed that diversity does not matter anymore. Maybe UCLA does not
care about diversity any more either. Adding this requirement
can’t make up for this, but it is a start. This is one step
that would prove UCLA cares about diversity as much as it says it
does.