Photo Illustration by JASON CHEN/Daily Bruin Senior
Staff
By Joy McMasters
Daily Bruin Staff
Ignorance is bliss, but not if it perpetuates hate and
discrimination.
For this reason, some students have fought with faculty since
the ’80s to require classes that would expose students to
different cultures and lifestyles, but at UCLA the battle is yet to
be won.
Other UC campuses have established academic diversity or
multicultural education requirements, but UCLA’s policy since
1993 has been to encourage multicultural content in all courses
rather than institute a specific requirement.
Though many students, faculty and administrators still point to
the importance of having ethnic diversity in the classroom, that
diversity dropped sharply since UC Board of Regents decision SP-1
and the statewide Proposition 209 ended affirmative action in
admissions. To some students, that drop in diversity makes having
such a requirement even more important, albeit a secondary
issue.
“The academic diversity requirement is secondary to making
sure that there is a diverse community on campus, otherwise
you’re studying people who aren’t in your class, who
aren’t on campus,” said student Regent Justin Fong, a
UCLA graduate student.
“For students to learn about diversity, they need to be
surrounded by it. You can’t read a book about it or see a
film about it,” he said.
Current general education courses lack diversity in the
perspectives and issues discussed, according to Fong, which makes a
separate academic diversity requirement necessary.
“Students are very supportive of this. They feel that
they’re building enough support to bring it to
fruition,” he said.
In the early 1990s, the Academic Senate investigated the
possibility of creating a diversity requirement, but decided
against it, said Director of Undergraduate Education Initiatives
Lucy Blackmar.
“Instead, a series of resolutions were passed recommending
that issues involving ethnic and gender diversity be merged into
the existing curriculum,” Blackmar said. “It is the
philosophy of the majority of the faculty at UCLA to incorporate
multicultural content and perspectives into a broad spectrum of
undergraduate courses.”
The resolutions call for undergraduates to “study
multicultural interactions, and develop the ability to analyze
complex, multicultural issues from different perspectives,”
as well as for an annual report to be delivered to the
Senate’s Council on Undergraduate Education discussing and
evaluating the integrational success of this curriculum.
“As was the intent of the 1993 resolutions, multicultural
perspectives have been incorporated into a large number of UCLA
courses over the past decade,” Blackmar said.
The Council on Undergraduate Education, however, was later
merged with others to form the Undergraduate Council, which
“authorizes, supervises and regulates all undergraduate
courses and programs of instruction” and “periodically
reviews and evaluates all undergraduate programs of study,”
according to the Senate’s Web site.
The relatively new Undergraduate Council is no longer
specifically required to submit such a report, said Undergraduate
Council Policy Analyst Linda Mohr.
“I have not seen anything addressing that in the
bylaws,” Mohr said.
Making a curricular change such as adding a diversity
requirement is difficult because of all the stages of faculty and
administrative approval, Fong said.
But modifying existing courses in a variety of disciplines is
much harder, he continued.
“Building consensus among faculty that would be needed for
a major curricular modification can take time. This consensus is
necessary for a change to be approved at all levels of the Academic
Senate,” Blackmar said.
General education modifications, for example, have to go through
the school or college first, then to the Faculty Executive
Committee of the Academic Senate, the General Education Governance
Committee, the Undergraduate Council, and finally to the General
Assembly, which meets only once a quarter.
The amount of time this process could take varies depending on
when different groups’ meetings occur and how much space is
available on the agenda, Mohr added.
Those pushing for a diversity requirement as well as those who
would approve and implement it are hesitant to move too quickly
because they want to set standards, establish expectations and iron
out the details before establishing a new requirement, Fong
said.
Though many students and educators agree that learning to
function in a diverse society is important, not all believe an
actual diversity requirement will help.
“UCLA has had many conversations about a diversity
requirement and always concluded that a diversity requirement is
not the most effective response to the goal of training students to
function effectively in a multicultural environment,” said
Associate Vice Chancellor Raymund Paredes.
Paredes said he prefers UCLA’s current approach of
curricular diversity across the board and exposure to diversity in
a variety of courses and environments, as established by the 1993
resolutions.
“I am not a great supporter of diversity requirements. I
don’t believe they have had much impact nationally and do
prefer the approach I have outlined ““ if we achieve
it,” Paredes said. “We still have a way to
go.”
For many students, just going away to college provides enough
exposure to diversity, and Fong said that this experiential
learning is one of the greatest aspects of attending a
university.
“Unfortunately, the trend at UCLA and other places is that
we’re losing diversity, and that experience is being lost
with it,” Fong said.