Faculty continues push for diversity-related GE requirement

Some faculty members are trying to decide how to shape a proposal for a new diversity-related general education requirement, though none have publicly started writing a formal proposition.

Last week, Chancellor Gene Block sent an email statement to the campus community calling for faculty to establish a diversity-related GE requirement by the end of 2014.

UCLA is the only school in the University of California system without a diversity-related GE requirement. Despite long-time lobbying efforts by students and faculty members, no proposals for a diversity-related GE requirement have come to fruition over the last 25 year. Faculty voted down the most recent proposal, called “Community and Conflict in the Modern World,” in June of 2012.

The School of the Arts and Architecture passed a diversity-related GE requirement for its students in 2007, and is the only program on campus to have one.

A proposal must pass several administrative steps before going into effect. Jan Reiff, chair of the Academic Senate and a history and statistics professor, said she thinks establishing a new GE requirement by the end of 2014 would be ambitious but doable if faculty wrote a proposal soon.

Reiff said she thinks a requirement could be in place for incoming students in the 2015-2016 academic year, but not for incoming students this fall.

Faculty members must form an ad hoc group to write the proposal and submit it to the College of Letters and Science’s Faculty Executive Committee, which reviews curriculum changes in the college.

“It’s a conversation that’s happening in a lot of places,” Reiff said.”The goal is for people to all get together to get the beginning of a proposal.”

After approval by the Faculty Executive Committee, a proposal for a diversity-related GE requirement must pass a College of Letters and Science faculty-wide majority vote. No past proposals have made it beyond this step.

The main challenges for proponents of a new requirement are compelling faculty members to vote and determining the exact content of the requirement, Reiff said.

Faculty-wide votes on a diversity-related GE requirement have had historically low turnouts, even if those turnouts are higher than those for faculty-wide votes on other ballots, said Kyle McJunkin, the director of curriculum coordination and operations for UCLA. About 20 percent of college faculty voted in 2004 and 30 percent in 2012.

The work group that put together the 2012 proposal focused on cultural differences rather than the term “diversity” in the hopes of attracting more faculty support. The term “diversity” was used in a 2004 proposal that failed.

Faculty opposition in June of 2012 focused on how the proposed requirement would be implemented given UCLA’s current budget.

Joseph Manson, an anthropology professor, made a statement along with some other faculty members in 2012 criticizing the proposal for its vague structure. He said in an email this week that he questions whether a new GE requirement would serve an academic purpose or whether it is only being considered by the administration for political reasons.

Proponents of a new proposal will have to iron out which classes satisfy the requirement. The “Community and Conflict” proposal listed more than 100 classes, including introductory classes in global studies, women’s studies and Chicana/o studies. At the time, most undergraduate students had already taken one of those classes, Reiff said.

Some faculty feared a similar requirement would simply be symbolic or watered-down because of the broad range of classes included.

Paul Kroskrity, chair of the American Indian studies interdepartmental program and an anthropology professor, has taught at UCLA for 35 years and was involved in discussions about a diversity requirement in the 1980s and 1990s. Though Kroskrity voted for the proposal in 2012, he said it may be difficult for him to support a new
proposal with similar general criteria.

“If we are trying to educate people, turning it into a cultural requirement isn’t going to do it,” Kroskrity said. “It’s about giving tools to people to deal with social inequality and racism.”

Instead, Kroskrity suggested complementing a diversity-related GE requirement with increased resources for ethnic studies departments.

Andrew Leuchter, who chaired the Academic Senate during the 2012 proposal process, said he thinks that a diversity-related requirement would make an impact on campus even if it was largely symbolic.

“I think it’s important that we take actions to signify our commitment to diversity, and this would be one of them,” said Leuchter, a psychiatry professor.

A report released in fall found that UCLA dealt inadequately with incidents of racial discrimination among faculty. McJunkin said he thinks the report acted as more of a catalyst for faculty discussion about diversity than Block’s announcement last week.

Darnell Hunt, a sociology professor and director of the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American studies, said he thinks the absence of a diversity-related requirement at UCLA is a symbol for the larger campus climate.

“Our faculty needs to be more open-minded and honest with themselves about what’s going on at UCLA,” Hunt said.

Kroskrity said he hopes increased lobbying efforts from both the administration and students will help raise faculty interest.

UCLA administration has been in contact with the Undergraduate Students Association Council and other student groups to talk about a requirement, said UCLA spokesman Phil Hampton in an email.

In October,administration representatives and USAC co-hosted an event aimed at educating students and faculty about the proposal for a diversity-related GE requirement.

Though efforts to establish a diversity-related GE requirement have been concentrated in the College of Letters and Science, Leuchter, a professor in the David Geffen School of Medicine, suggested the discussion be expanded to include the other schools as well.

“I, as a faculty member, have strong feelings about this, and there might be faculty in other schools who feel strongly about this,” Leuchter said. “It warrants a broad campus discussion on how we want to move forward as a campus.”