Profs rethink U.S. cultural requirement

Students petitioning for the inclusion of American minority cultures in a new College requirement seemingly met defeat at a faculty meeting yesterday -- but a unanimous last-minute vote kept their cause alive.

About 15 students waited outside the School of Arts and Sciences Faculty Senate meeting in College Hall to present a petition to SAS administrators. They sought the inclusion of the United States in the "cultural analysis" requirement that will apply to next fall's incoming freshmen.

The faculty was scheduled to finalize the Cross-Cultural Analysis Requirement -- which, due to a decision last spring, currently includes only foreign cultures.

In an expected move, professor of Sociology Tukufu Zuberi presented an amendment to the text of the requirement that would require students to fulfill it with U.S. culture classes, as the protesters wanted. Zuberi was not available for comment after the meeting.

The amendment, however, was "solidly defeated," according to SAS Dean Rebecca Bushnell.

"We trusted that [Zuberi] would express our interest because he's been so helpful and so heavily involved," said College junior Shakirah Simley, who helped organize the petition. "I would have liked for the amendment to have passed, but I understand the tension among the faculty" over the terms of the requirement, she said.

Immediately following the defeat of Zuberi's amendment, Art History professor David Brownlee presented a last-minute motion that asked the Committee on Undergraduate Education to develop an additional requirement that included U.S. minority culture.

Brownlee's motion was unanimously approved.

CUE will present the proposal for consideration at the next Faculty Senate meeting, to be held in April.

Brownlee said that he had expected Zuberi's amendment would be defeated -- he himself voted against it because he feels students should be required to study both domestic and foreign cultures.

"I think it is also important for Americans to understand the diversity of their own society," Brownlee said. "My motion reflected the fact that a lot of the faculty were interested in doing both."

Simley added that the protesting students have "never doubted the merit of having an international perspective," but believe that U.S. culture is just as important as foreign ones.

Chairwoman of the Student Committee on Undergraduate Education and College senior Farrah Freis said the faculty's decision was "responsible." She added that excluding either domestic or foreign cultures would diminish the value of the requirement.

Brownlee emphasized that students should be required to study both.

"They really are two different things," he said. "It's like wanting students to study both biological science and physical science. They are both science ... but they are two distinct and different areas of scholarship."

Petitioners -- who waited for over two hours outside the College Hall meeting yesterday -- were encouraged by the new motion despite the defeat of the original amendment.

"This is an issue that binds everyone together," said College junior Nina Wong, who helped organize the petition. "Both [foreign and domestic culture] are intertwined. You can't address one without addressing the other."

Freis added, "I think the students who were protesting got better than what they were asking for."

Although the cross-cultural requirement will stand as originally written, SAS officials say they will consider including U.S.-based cultural requirement this spring.

"I don't want this to be swept under the rug, and [the motion] still opens lines of communication to figure this out," Simley said. "It's not over."

American or Foreign? - Protesters delivered a petition to the SAS Faculty Senate asking for inclusion of courses on U.S. minorities in the new "cultural analysis" curriculum requirement - Sociology professor Tukufu Zuberi introduced an amendment to include domestic cultures in the requirement - Faculty voted down Zuberi's amendment, but passed a resolution saying they would consider having the requirement include both U.S. and foreign cultures

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