Jonah Lalas Lalas is a fourth-year
international development studies and political science student,
who urges you to question your assumptions. E-mail him at [email protected]. Click
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On Nov. 19, the faculty of the College of Letter & Sciences
will be asked to vote on major changes to the General Education
curriculum as well as other requirements and submit their ballots
by Dec. 5.
The faculty and the students of UCLA need to oppose these
changes on the grounds that students were not a major part of this
hasty process and a diversity requirement was not included.
The proposed changes, drafted by the General Education
Governance Committee and Faculty Executive Committee, include
lowering the number of GE courses while changing some of the
classes from four to five units. Such alterations in the GE
curriculum will greatly affect the incoming students of 2002 as
well as the futures of students to come.
Why would the university make such changes, something not done
in the last 20 years? Most likely, it is part of their reaction to
Tidal Wave II, the expected influx of over 60,000 students within
the next 10 years. The university wants to find quick ways of
funneling us out of this machine by increasing the speed of the
corporate conveyor belt, even if it means sacrificing important
pieces of our education.
Indeed, many of us students were kept in the dark regarding
these decisions. Do any of you ever remember receiving one of those
infamous e-mails from Chancellor Albert Carnesale or the deans
about possibly altering the courses that will play an inherent role
in your education? Though we are paying thousands of dollars every
year in fees, the university insists on excluding us from key
decisions, which will greatly impact our lives, and they expect us
to blindly follow along.
We must also challenge the proposed changes because it does not
include a diversity requirement. The GE requirements are supposed
to provide students with a broad range of knowledge and academic
tools to take upper division courses as well as understand other
fields beyond our major.
A diversity requirement would require students to take a course
on gender, race, sexuality or religious studies. Currently, UCLA is
the only UC campus without such a requirement instituted into its
GE curriculum. The lack of a diversity requirement forces us to
question the makeup of the GE curriculum and whether or not it
reflects what students want to learn or the multicultural reality
of America.
Many people in academics still subscribe to the idea of
“assimilation,” meaning people of different cultures
who come to the United States should strip themselves of their
cultural identity and blend in with the “melting pot”
of American culture. Such views do not take into account the
particular histories and struggles of cultural minorities. Without
an understanding of these experiences, we cannot fully grasp the
meaning of “institutionalized racism” or the reasons
behind why certain groups (i.e. women, African Americans, etc.) are
still not fully represented at universities or face barriers to
opportunity and success.
Furthermore, the very notion of “assimilation”
assumes devotion to a main set of principles and a core culture,
which in our society is centered on European experiences. While
many of us learned about Napoleon’s empire and some of the
roles played by Spanish, British and French governments, we know
hardly anything about the effects of Belgian colonialism on Rwandan
genocide or the political states and national identities of South
Asia and Afghanistan. And while we are familiar with the immigrant
experiences of the British and the Irish, we know hardly anything
about the experiences of immigrants from Asia or Latin America.
American assimilation does not substantially recognize the
existence of other cultural groups; instead it succumbs to the
belief of a “united” country, free of cultural
conflict. Given the recent hate crimes against Muslims in response
to the Sept. 11 attacks and the rising debates over U.S. military
action, it is obvious the United States is not really
“united” and the American public is largely oblivious
to the other countries outside of their Eurocentric realities.
It seems like the countries of the Middle East and South Asia
did not even exist on the academic map prior to recent events,
which can explain the display of ignorance toward the war and
Islam. Understanding the existence of other cultures is the first
step to creating a more inclusive society.
We must make steps toward implementing a diversity requirement
in the hopes of exposing ourselves to how social identity factors
like race, gender, sexuality and the like can play into our lives
and opportunities. The task for us at hand is to oppose the
proposed changes to the GE curriculum and requirements and support
the fight for a diversity requirement. We, the students, must feel
passionate about making a new curriculum, fight to have our voices
heard, and take the lead in ensuring our education reflects the
multicultural society we live in today.