Requirement originates out of current proposal

Bautista is a second-year computer science and engineering
student.

By Randy Bautista

Over the past few weeks, I have read several columns and letters
in the Viewpoint attacking the campaign for a diversity
requirement. I feel it is necessary to respond to these
attacks by explaining the actual facts about the campaign and the
necessity of having a diversity requirement in our education.

First of all, the diversity requirement that we are campaigning
for will not add to the number of required classes. The proposed
changes under the “Foundations of Society and Culture”
require that a student take a class of social analysis, a class of
historical analysis, and a third class from either
subgroup. The diversity requirement campaign seeks to turn
this third class into a diversity requirement that would
“emphasize the experiences of the major American ethnic
minority groups, women and LGBTs by examining the social
constructions of race, gender and sexuality in the context of
American historical, political and cultural institutions.”
The campaign does not ask that students take an extra class about
diversity ““ the campaign asks that a class already within the
current proposal become the diversity requirement.

The reason why this campaign even exists is that it is essential
for students to understand the society in which we
live. People have argued that it is unnecessary to learn about
the constructions of race or gender or sexuality because these
issues don’t apply to them. Well, I respond by referring
to April 28, 1992: the day of the Los Angeles riots. I respond
by referring to the hate crimes and sexual assaults committed at
UCLA, a campus that is supposed to be one of the most safe, diverse
and accepting in the nation. Do you think these acts of violence
came out of nowhere?

In order to prevent such violent acts from happening again, we
must move beyond mere sympathy for the victims and examine the root
causes of such violence. It is our responsibility as future leaders
of this nation that we understand these social problems and provide
educated solutions, or we will be forced to answer for our
ignorance like we did on April 28. We must be committed in our
education to understand the social ills of our society in order to
cure them, and a diversity requirement would be the first step in
that commitment.

As a student dedicated to this campaign, I challenge the student
body of UCLA to make the commitment with us and demand that we
implement a diversity requirement. Become educated about this
issue. Take a stand, so that we, together, can improve our
education here at UCLA.