[Online] Faculty votes down diversity requirement

In its final stages of becoming an official policy, the
diversity requirement proposal was rejected as faculty members of
the UCLA College voted against it.

Voter turnout was “somewhat low” as only 249 faculty
members voted out of 1,262 eligible voters, said Robin Garrell,
chairwoman of the Faculty Executive Committee of the College. The
decision of the faculty wide vote was confirmed Dec. 19.

Already existing at the other eight University of California
undergraduate campuses, the proposal at UCLA called for students to
take one course ““ as part of their existing general education
requirements ““ in any of the three foundation areas that
address issues within diversity.

But faculty members of the College were not completely pleased
by the proposal as only 108 members voted in favor of the
requirement while 141 opposed.

Student leaders, who have been working in collaboration with
faculty for several years now to implement such a requirement, were
upset.

“I’m disappointed in the fact that only 249 faculty
voted and other faculty members were lobbying against it,”
said Eligio Martinez, Academic Affairs commissioner for the
Undergraduate Students Association Council.

Baffled as to why the requirement ““ now in its 17th year
of activits trying to get it implemented ““ did not pass the
College vote, Martinez expressed his dissatisfaction.

“It just doesn’t make sense," he said. “It
comes down to what the faculty considers a valuable education,
(and) they don’t think diversity requirement is
important.”

Garrell said some faculty members had several concerns with the
current proposal.

Examples of these concerns stem from the belief that the
existing GE curriculum encompasses a large collection of
diversity-related courses which students already take, Garrell
said. Other faculty believe the proposal is overly broad and vague
in its current state, Garrell also said.

Student leaders in conjunction with Professor Raymond Knapp,
head of the GE governance committee, plan to submit a revised
proposal that they hope to be put to a vote at the end of winter
quarter, and will strive to have some form of a diversity
requirement implemented by fall 2005, Martinez said.

The faculty members of the School of Arts and Architecture and
the School of Theatre, Film and Television have yet to vote for the
implementation of the requirement in their schools.

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