Faculty, students get ready for debate

As College of Arts and Sciences officials get ready to introduce a global culture curricular requirement this fall, the question of whether a similar requirement for U.S. society should be implemented remains unanswered.

And members of the Committee on Undergraduate Education are preparing to debate the issue all semester long, while advocates of the proposed requirement are building their case.

The Cross-Cultural Analysis Requirement -- which will mandate that students in the College take a class focusing on a non-U.S. culture -- was approved by the committee on Dec. 8.

But a last-minute resolution from Art History professor David Brownlee calling for further consideration of a separate, U.S. cultural requirement has ignited a campus debate on the role of culture in the curriculum.

Since the cross-cultural requirement's passage, the committee has not formally met to discuss the U.S. requirement, but College Dean Dennis DeTurck said that plans are under way for student and faculty forums in mid-March.

In the meantime, student advocates of a U.S. culture requirement are focusing on publicizing their vision for the curriculum.

"We're not trying to indoctrinate political correctness. I think that's been a misconception," said Shakirah Simley, the chairwoman of the United Minorities Council. "It's a variety of courses that anyone can take across a variety of disciplines that can talk about cultural issues."

Simley also said that the Minorities Council and other student advocates of the requirement have "received a substantial amount of faculty support" and that they plan to work with faculty to further develop their proposal.

Simley and other advocates of the requirement plan to meet with DeTurck and other officials in the next few weeks.

In addition to input from student groups, the Committee on Undergraduate Education's presentation to the University will include responses from a survey sent to faculty after the December meeting designed to gauge feelings on the cross-cultural requirement.

"The jury is still out on the [cross-cultural requirement], even though it was adopted with a strong positive vote at the faculty meeting," DeTurck said.

Meanwhile, incoming members of the Class of 2010, the group most affected by the changes, have been almost entirely uninvolved with the debate on campus.

Information session presenters "didn't mention that they were changing anything. What we got out of it was that there was a core curriculum with distributional requirements," said Allentown, Pa., high school senior Rachel Levick, who was accepted early decision.

Levick said that the cultural requirement was mentioned but that she was not informed of the details.

DeTurck also said that, as the faculty committee gears up for the debate over the U.S. requirement, preparations are already under way for the September launch of the cross-cultural requirement.

In order to help incoming freshmen understand the changes, DeTurck said, academic advisers will undergo training and all freshman literature will be revised.

"There's a lot of work to do," DeTurck said.

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