Chancellor calls for diversity-related GE by end of 2014

UCLA Chancellor Gene Block called on faculty to establish a diversity-related general education requirement by the end of 2014, on Monday in an email to the campus community.

For more than 25 years, some students and faculty members have pushed for the creation of an undergraduate academic requirement that would educate students about different cultures in an effort to promote tolerance and understanding.

For the requirement to be established, it must pass a vote by the UCLA Academic Senate, the faculty body governing undergraduate curriculum.

The statement comes amid calls from students for the university to improve its campus climate by bringing more students from minority backgrounds to UCLA, creating a diversity-related G.E. requirement and directing more funds to cultural student groups and ethnic studies departments.

Members of the UCLA community have prepared proposals for a diversity-related G.E. requirement before, but none have passed a vote by the College of Letters and Science faculty.

UCLA is the only school in the University of California system without a diversity-related G.E. requirement.

“It tells people diversity is not important or that everything you need to know about diversity is already taught here,” said Darnell Hunt, a sociology professor and director of the UCLA Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American studies.

Hunt added that he thinks multiple incidents of racial discrimination on campus this year show that students and faculty still need to learn more about diversity.

In Monday’s email, Block said diversity at UCLA has suffered since the passage of Proposition 209, which banned affirmative action in higher education admissions in 1996.

Since then, the university has tried to work within the limits of the law to increase diversity on campus, but more measures should be taken, he added.

“Conversations about race can be very difficult,” Block said in the statement. “But we cannot be afraid to have these conversations, because they are so critically important to our university and to society.”

In November, third-year Afro-American studies studentSy Stokes, posted a spoken-word performance video on YouTube addressing a lack of black male students at UCLA. The video, called “The Black Bruins,” now has more than 1,850,000 views.

The Asian Pacific Coalition at UCLA and two USC student groups, the Asian Pacific American Student Assembly and the Student Coalition for Asian Pacific Empowerment, hosted a town hall last week. The student groups held the meeting in response to a racist and sexist flier sent to the UCLA Asian American Studies Center and the USC Asian Pacific American Students Services earlier this month.

At the town hall meeting, members from various cultural student groups called for a diversity-related G.E. requirement. They also demanded that the UCLA administration include student input in any policy changes and in the selection process for new administrators.

Nicole Ngaosi, the academic affairs coordinator for the Asian Pacific Coalition and a fourth-year Asian American studies student, said she was wary of a new impetus for a diversity-related G.E. requirement unless students were actively involved in designing it.

UCLA released an internal report in fall that found UCLA’s policies and procedures for responding to reports of racial discrimination among faculty members ineffective.

As a result of the report, Block announced the creation of new administrative positions focusing on diversity. In Monday’s statement, Block said the administration is finalizing a job description for a Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion. Positions for two diversity officers to help the Vice Chancellor will also be posted soon.

Hunt, who was involved in pushing for the university investigation into the racial climate among faculty, said he applauds Block’s statement and hopes it will bring faculty attention to the issue of a diversity-related G.E. requirement.

In June 2012, faculty in the College of Letters and Science rejected a proposal that would have established a “Community and Conflict in the Modern World” requirement. Around 30 percent of eligible faculty voted on the 2012 proposal, and about 20 percent of faculty voted on a similar proposal in 2004.

At the time, some faculty members criticized the proposal because they thought it was unclear in its implementation and measurable impact.

If a similar proposal develops and is brought to another vote in the future, Hunt said he hopes more faculty will participate in discussions and votes.

In October, an event hosted by The Office of the Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs, the Undergraduate Students Association council Academic Affairs Commission and the Alliance through Intergroup Dialogue aimed at educating students and faculty about the proposal for a diversity-related G.E. requirement.

At the time, Kyle McJunkin, director of curriculum coordination and operations, said officials did not believe students and faculty planned to resubmit the requirement to faculty for a vote this year.

Salai Escobar, a second-year sociology student, said she supports a diversity-related G.E. requirement because her experience with a class in the Chicana/o studies department expanded her perspective.

“(The class) really showed me how people don’t have (the) same resources as others,” Escobar said.

Other students said they were not sure that a G.E requirement would change racial climate significantly.

Peter Wang, a third-year business economics student, said he thought funding different cultural groups on campus might have more of an impact on students’ views of diversity than creating a G.E. requirement.

Members of the Academic Senate could not be reached for comment. A diversity-related G.E. requirement is not listed as a current item under review on the Academic Senate website.

Contributing reports by Norma Reyes and Jeong Park, Bruin contributors.