Letter to the editor

Diversity requirement essential for UCLA

The Committee on Diversity and Equal Opportunity wishes as
strongly as possible to support the implementation of a diversity
requirement. We commend the undergraduate council for launching a
proposal last year, and we support the efforts of the Academic
Affairs Commission to advance a diversity requirement at UCLA, the
only University of California campus lacking one.

We feel it is essential that, as part of their undergraduate
education, students take at least one course that addresses the
complex dynamics of power between genders, ethnicities and economic
groups. Students need to have at least some awareness of how these
dynamics have played out in the past, whether as paradigms to avoid
or models for solving problems today.

California and Los Angeles’ increasing diversity is a
wellspring of talent that could keep UCLA at the forefront of
scholarly excellence for decades to come. Unfortunately,
countervailing forces ““ an absence of understanding, the
persistence of racial, ethnic and gender stereotyping, and
heightened societal conflict over rapidly changing demographics
““ threaten to deprive the state of the benefits of its many
cultures and perspectives. In this context, a central mission for
UCLA is to replace negative ideas with enlightened analyzes from a
variety of ethnic and gender perspectives.

A diversity requirement will reward faculty and departments that
make these issues integral to their General Education offerings. It
will also contribute substantially to the excellence of UCLA, Los
Angeles and California. For these reasons, the committee urges all
members of UCLA to move quickly to get a strong Diversity
requirement in place.

Katherine Callen King and Muriel McClendon Co-chairs of
the Committee on Diversity and Equal Opportunity