KEITH ENRIQUEZ/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Karren
Lane and Bryant Tan, members of USAC,
discuss the potential for a general education diversity requirement
to be implemented at UCLA.
By Arj Arjunan
Daily Bruin Contributor
Undergraduate Students Association Council members met with
faculty Tuesday and discussed possibilities for implementation of a
diversity requirement in the proposed changes to the general
education curriculum.
Amendments can be made to the new proposal to incorporate a
diversity requirement, the faculty who met with the council members
said.
“The new proposal allows for more flexibility in
implementation,” said Karen Rowe, chair of the Faculty
Executive Committee. “An amendment is a whole lot easier than
reforming a whole program.”
The amendment process allows committees in the Academic Senate
to vote on proposed changes on an individual basis.
Understanding the amendment process gives USAC a backup plan in
case faculty approve the GE modifications despite the fact that the
proposed changes don’t include a diversity requirement, said
USAC academic affairs commissioner Bryant Tan.
The committee’s current proposal offers studies of race,
ethnicity and gender in the GE curriculum but no formal diversity
requirement, said David Rodes, chair of the GE Governance
Committee.
Student and faculty surveys indicate little support exists for a
diversity requirement, he said.
Meanwhile, USAC members want to implement a diversity
requirement mandating enrollment in ethnic and gender studies
courses.
Students and faculty need only learn more about the intricacies
of the diversity requirement to support it, Tan said.
Requiring courses that examine constructions of race, class and
gender will demonstrate the university’s commitment to
promoting greater understanding of diverse communities among
students, he said.
In anticipation of the Dec. 5 faculty vote on the proposed GE
changes, students enrolled in an Asian American studies course
organized a forum Tuesday to discuss the need for a diversity
requirement at UCLA.
Sunny Hsia, a third-year Asian American studies student involved
in the forum, said hate crimes following the Sept. 11 terrorist
attacks demonstrate a need to educate students about issues that
affect a multicultural society.
The four USAC members who met Tuesday before the forum with
Rodes, Rowe and Raymond Knapp, chair of the Undergraduate Council,
also discussed student involvement in the formulation of new GE
requirements.
The process of modifying GE requirements could take another
three to five years if the faculty votes down the proposed changes
Dec. 5, Rowe said, adding that it would be difficult to get
committees and faculty to spend time modifying a defeated
proposal.