Submission: Diversity requirement critical for future campus governance
By Ryan Nelson
Feb. 9, 2015 1:21 a.m.
Dear Colleagues,
We write to categorically support the proposed College of Letters and Science undergraduate diversity requirement, an amendment to Divisional Regulation A-458 (C). The College Faculty Executive Committee, the Undergraduate Council and the UCLA Academic Senate’s Legislative Assembly have all supported this requirement following extensive vetting and debate. Nevertheless, a small group of opponents has undermined this democratic process, taking unprecedented steps to impede the adoption of this curricular change by forcing a campus-wide faculty vote.
As the Academic Senate committee charged with enhancing diversity at UCLA and assuring equal opportunity for all, we are extremely troubled by the hostility and vehement obstruction with which the diversity requirement has been met. We strongly encourage you, our colleagues, to ratify the proposed requirement in the upcoming vote. Your support is critical not only for our students and the broader UCLA community, but also for the future of faculty governance.
UCLA Academic Senate Committee on Diversity and Equal Opportunity (CODEO)
Marissa Lopez, committee chair, associate professor of English and Chicana/o studies and associate director of Chicano Studies Research Center.
Corinne Bendersky, Anderson School of Management
Tara Browner, Departments of Ethnomusicology and American Indian Studies
Esteban Dell’Angelica, Department of Human Genetics
Alicia Gaspar de Alba, chair of LGBT Studies Program, Departments of Chicana/o Studies, English and Gender Studies
Darnell Hunt, Department of Sociology and director of Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies
Rose Maly, Department of Family Medicine
Claudia Mitchell-Kernan, professor emeritus in the Department of Anthropology
Russell Thornton, Department of Anthropology
