UCLA faculty overwhelmingly approves required courses on diversity

[alp227]

Source: LA Times

UCLA’s faculty approved, by a large margin, a controversial new policy that requires most future undergraduates to take a course on ethnic, cultural, religious or gender diversity.

The strongly supportive vote announced Friday night was the culmination of efforts that began two decades ago and previously faced rejections.

In a tally posted online, the campus-wide Faculty Senate voted 916 to 487 to begin the requirement for incoming freshmen in fall 2015 and new transfer students in 2017. It would affect students in the College of Letters and Science, which enrolls 85% of UCLA undergraduates.

The approval in the two-week online voting is a victory for UCLA Chancellor Gene Block. He endorsed the requirement, saying the courses would help prepare students to live and work in a multicultural society. Other supporters said the case for the classes was made more compelling by several recent incidents on campus that raised allegations of anti-Semitism and a lack of attention to racial bias.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-ln-ucla-diversity-20150410-story.html

[Brother Buzz]

1. So goes UCLA...

So goes the rest of the UC's and state universities.

As California goes, so goes the nation, and as Martha Stewart would say, "It's a good thing.".

[romanic]

2. It's definitely important

for college students to learn how to adapt and work in a multicultural environment so I approve of this. I just hope this policy doesn't get hijacked by those on the extreme fringe of the left that want to force their political views on young students. College is meant for different ideas with different groups of people congregating together; that is true diversity.

[a la izquierda]

3. Yeah, because that's what we professors on the left do.

My hope is that the right doesn't see this as another way college makes students think, because god forbid we train them to do that.

[alp227]

8. Some "different ideas" are unfit for academic environment.

Like holocaust denial, ufology, creationism, David Barton's "Christianity in the Constitution", etc. Seeking the truth should outweigh "everything goes".

[Larry Engels]

9. Your post is a jumble of contradictions.

You can't "seek the truth" if discussion of certain subjects is suppressed.

[alp227]

12. If those subjects are garbage they deserve scorn not accommodation.

Seeking truth DOES involve filtering out nonsense.

[Larry Engels]

13. How is it determined whether a subject is "garbage"?

If academic inquiry about a subject is forbidden, how will we know that the subject is not worthy of inquiry? Should Gould's idea of punctuated equilibrium in evolution be suppressed because it conflicts with classical Darwinism? Can we know this in advance of investigation?

[Adrahil]

21. Through critical thinking.

Not all ideas are created equal, and they shouldn't be treat equally. Wackadoo ideas can be mentioned and even discussed, but in the end, they should serve as an example of how critical thinking is used to weed out bad ideas, not present them as if they are somehow on the same plane as good ideas.

[jtuck004]

4. 18 years of hate, 3 credit hours of diversity. Fuckin' change is just gonna mow us down. n/t

[Larry Engels]

14. These kids have not had "18 years of hate."

They are top grads from high schools in California and all over the country. Kids at this level are not the product of "18 years of hate." And they probably don't need a course in "diversity."

[jtuck004]

15. Lol. You think they catch racism from a bad cheeseburger? People are taught this

from before they slide out of the birth canal. Harder to see if one is of the privileged skin color, I suspect. Some may even wear a hood and actively choose to not see what is in front of their face.

We are all a product of hate, living in this country which is in part based on and now steeped in racism and bigotry. And just because they have some of the finest minds doesn't mean they don't harbor some of the most hateful, vile, and disgusting thoughts ever imagined.

We could probably all benefit from you taking a course in diversity, while we are on the subject.

[Larry Engels]

16. I don't think you know these kids.

If you did, there are a lot of things you would not say.

[jtuck004]

17. Where the fuck do you think racists come from? Just suddenly born at 28?

Is there sand in your ears from having your head buried?

I know "these kids", thousands upon thousands of them, both in college and out, and that doesn't, and wouldn't, change a thing I am saying.

They are the product of broken adults who have taught them all the hate they can. Broken adults can't breed their way out of the problem by birthing whole children, because they teach them to be just as broken. And un.til the adults fix themselves, the problem will never be resolved.

[Larry Engels]

18. "Where the fuck"?

Is this how you participate in a discussion? Not with me.

[jtuck004]

20. You don't want to discuss, you want to deny. That's different, and a waste of

my time.

So, cya.

[Igel]

5. Sounds like the proposal's changed a lot since I saw it in the '90s.

Then it was ridiculous.

It was an add-on requirement. For some majors, it would have increased the # of required credits for a degree above the maximum number of credits that you could carry forward for a degree. Engineers couldn't graduate. And the proponents at the time just shrugged (since they didn't much approve of engineers.)

It also lacked diversity. When the faculty on various committees pointed out that there were at least a hundred classes that satisfied what the students were proposing, the students balked.

They insisted on a handful of classes with very specific kinds of requirements. A class on Irish-American history would not have counted. A class on Russian culture wouldn't have counted. It was specifically "American cultures," and only some of those but not only those. A class on jazz or blues wouldn't have counted--primarily about some portion of African-American culture, it was rejected as inappropriate for this requirement because it didn't raise the correct issues of race, class, and privilege with the right perspective. A course on Mexican politics and society was put forward as satisfying the proposal--even though it was entirely about Mexico and not the US or Mexican-Americans, because so much Mexican history *could* be seen (and the way the professor taught it it was seen) through these lenses.

Most of the faculty looked at the requirement and said it wasn't about diversity. It was about politics. And it was about making some departments more important. So it was rejected routinely.

As I said, sounds like it changed.

[Larry Engels]

10. Interesting post.

So now it's a single course that everyone has to take? There will have to be a lot of sections! Can the content vary from one section to another? And how was the issue about "American cultures" worked out?

[Lucky Luciano]

6. I love diversity.

I hate diversity classes. Nothing taught me more about diversity than world travel. No class could cover what one could learn from traveling. Of course, travel is expensive, but I suspect most students would only cynically go through the motions to graduate with the class and learn little. Better than nothing I suppose.

We live in NYC. I have a 2 year old and we have to think about how poorly rated the public schools are here. One alternative is expensive private schools where everyone is white or Asian (my boy is half Japanese) - at least there is diversity from just living here. The other alternative is moving to a suburb with all the schools rated 10+ - trouble there is that it is all white in the school and the town. He would never learn about diversity that way except when we travel.

I really hope my boy learns all about the world and its differences through life experience.

[Calista241]

7. So, pay more money for a class that 90% of those under 21 years old know anyway.

The under 21 crowd is not the ones that need to be educated on diversity. It's like making an experienced car mechanic learn how to change the oil, again.

[Larry Engels]

11. Yes. Everyone in the class will already agree with the message of the curriculum.

This is, above all, a gesture. UCLA, like other UC campuses, gets the top 11% of the high school grads. Kids this age at this level of achievement are already onboard the diversity wagon.

[alp227]

19. Nonsense. A lot of top HS grads are not exactly progressive minded.

Even in a super blue state like CA. Consider how a lot of higher income adults vote Republican and instill conservatism in their children.

[JudyM]

22. Good first step. Now to get it started in the younger grades... along with mindfulness training. nt