Editorial: New petition doesn’t accurately reflect student body
By Editorial Board
Jan. 5, 2015 5:41 a.m.
Student government representatives and several UCLA student groups have been deliberate and clear in their support of an undergraduate diversity course requirement.
But a new petition signed by a group of 59 professors and administrators could jeopardize the requirement already approved by student representatives.
After the College of Letters and Science faculty passed a proposal for a diversity requirement with a 332-303 vote in late October, the requirement then gained the necessary approval from the UCLA Academic Senate’s Legislative Assembly and the Undergraduate Students Association Council. The affirmative votes effectively greenlit the requirement for first-year students entering in 2015 and transfer students entering in 2017.
The new course requirement would have students take a course focusing on inequalities in areas like race, ethnicity, gender, religion and sexual orientation during their UCLA careers. It has been championed by many student leaders in response to student concerns about facing a hostile campus climate and recent instances of racial profiling on or near UCLA’s campus.
The petition, however, calls for a revote. This time, members of the Academic Senate from all schools and colleges within UCLA, not just the College of Letters and Science, will be able to weigh in on the issue.
This board finds the new voting procedure ignorant to the beliefs and efforts of the undergraduate student body, both for its content and for its timing.
For starters, the petition now allows votes from hundreds of faculty members whose students will not be affected by the passage of the diversity requirement. The version approved in late November only applies to students within the College of Letters and Science and those who take courses within the college.
Now the diversity requirement course selection process, originally scheduled to begin during winter quarter, must wait until at least March 10, when the faculty vote is set to conclude. Student advocates will be forced to campaign for yet another vote instead of spending their time shaping the course requirement they spent years fighting for.
The timing of these 59 professors and administrators must also be called into question. The Academic Senate-wide vote was announced Dec. 18, well after USAC’s deciding vote and at a time when most undergraduate students were either in the thick of finals or home early for winter break. Students still have time to gather support for the requirement for a vote starting in late February, but the timing of the announcement ensured minimal opportunity for students to immediately respond and speak out against the petition on campus.
As students and faculty gear up for yet another vote, UCLA continues to fall behind.
It falls behind its schedule of selecting and tweaking requirement-compliant courses.
It falls behind the seven other UCs that have already implemented an undergraduate diversity course requirement and even the Los Angeles Unified School District, which announced the approval of its own requirement in December.
Most importantly, it falls behind in its promise to provide students a diverse and comprehensive education.
