Faculty, students discuss diversity requirement at town hall
Student leaders hand out fliers at a town hall Wednesday night about implementing a diversity-related requirement. (Dang-Co Vu/Daily Bruin)
By Jessica Doumit and
April 24, 2014 1:12 a.m.
The original version of this article contained an error and has been changed. See the bottom of the article for additional information.
Students and faculty raised concerns at a town hall Wednesday night about successfully implementing a diversity-related requirement that is both effective and sensitive to the UCLA community’s needs.
About 50 students, many of whom were from cultural student groups, were present at the town hall, which was hosted by the Undergraduate Students Association Council Academic Affairs Commission.
The event was meant to help faculty gather student input on the draft of a diversity requirement for the College of Letters and Science, as well as to give students and faculty an opportunity to collaborate in the proposal process.
A new faculty committee tasked with creating a proposal for a diversity requirement for undergraduate students is expected to present its proposition to the College Faculty Executive Committee before the end of the quarter.
Christina Palmer, the chair of the College of Letters and Science Faculty Executive Committee, sent out a letter on April 18 inviting several UCLA professors to take part in the committee, which is chaired by Professor M. Belinda Tucker, the vice provost of the Institute of American Cultures, and Professor Michael Alfaro, from the department of ecology and evolutionary biology.
The committee is set to meet three times during the spring quarter and will also include a student advisory group that will assist in creating the proposal, according to Palmer’s letter.
History professor Robin D.G. Kelley and gender studies and Asian American studies professor Grace Hong led the discussion at the town hall, which broached topics such as the effects of diversity requirement on the university in light of racial tensions on campus.
Neyamatullah Akbar, a fourth-year biology student and the president of the Muslim Student Association, who attended the town hall, said he thinks a diversity requirement should aim to teach and hold students accountable to moral standards, not just the True Bruin values.
For more than two decades now, students and faculty members have been lobbying for the establishment of a diversity requirement. In 2004 and 2012, the faculty of the College of Letters and Science voted down proposals to establish a diversity requirement at UCLA.
In 2007, the UCLA School of Arts and Architecture passed its own diversity requirement, making it the only institution on campus with such a requirement. However, UCLA still remains the only school in the University of California system without a diversity-related requirement.
Members of the faculty committee hope to differentiate the new requirement from past attempts by proposing it as a general College rule instead of a general education requirement. The last time UCLA tried to establish a requirement, faculty members proposed it as a new general education stipulation, Tucker said at the event.
Tucker added that the new requirement would affect about 85 percent of undergraduate students, who attend the UCLA College of Letters and Science.
During the meeting, USAC President John Joanino said he thinks the requirement could include a service learning aspect to bring students out into the community.
Some students at the event said they think certain faculty members do not understand diversity-related issues and contribute to a negative campus-climate.
Maryssa Hall, USAC external vice president, said she thinks that some faculty members do not understand the meaning of diversity.
Faculty members also voiced concerns about faculty’s ability to successfully carry out the requirement.
“Faculty need to be educated as much as students, if not more,” Tucker said.
Janay Williams, who serves on the Academic Climate Committee on the Academic Affairs Commission, handed out letters at the end of the meeting calling for faculty to talk with students about diversity-related issues and to support efforts to pass a diversity requirement.
Williams, a third-year microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics student, encouraged students to send the letters to faculty in an effort to draw their attention to the upcoming proposal they will have the power to pass.
The new faculty committee is set to meet next week for the first time.
Correction: In 2004 and 2012, the faculty of the College of Letters and Science voted down diversity requirement proposals.
