Professor talks on diversified curricula

In a didactic and entertaining lecture, University of California at Berkeley Professor Ronald Takaki spoke last night on the importance of changing university curricula to include the contributions of minority groups in every field. Takaki, a pioneer in the field of diversifying education, discussed the issue of "re-visioning" the American college curriculum. A crowd of over 100 students, faculty and community members filled the DuBois College House Multi-Purpose Room for the 50-minute lecture. Takaki criticized the American education system for concentrating primarily on "dead white European males," while neglecting the contributions of virtually all minority groups. Takaki gave a model of a diversified education by condensing a full semester of information from one of his classes into a 20-minute history lesson of the past two-hundred years of the United States. His description of the industrial revolution from the invention of the cotton gin to the intercontinental railroad included the contributions of all minority groups in America which he said most "European white male" accounts of history ignore. Takaki then encouraged the University to model its curriculum changes on the recommendations of an innovative committee to diversify Berkeley's curriculum, of which he was the chairperson. Takaki said that over the next two years, Berkeley will create over 150 new classes across the entire university to include the contributions minority groups have made. Takaki added, during the question-and-answer period, that more affirmative action in graduate teaching programs is needed to "bring more minorities to faculties across the country." Many students at the lecture said it was informative. "I knew bits and pieces of the history he covered, but to see the totality of history . . . I was amazed," said College sophomore Niko Phillips. "The speech served to elucidate the transformation of American culture by its various components," said Wharton junior Jackson Pek.

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