'Racism 101' diversifies course loads around the country

and CARA TANAMACHI If a group of University students have their way, incoming students may need to take one more requirement before graduating – Racism 101. Students in Afro-American Studies 603, a course focusing on racism in the United States, are circulating a petition that urges the administration to create a required course on racism and cultural diversity. Engineering senior Liesel Nottingham, a coordinator of the project, said she and other students in the class think "it is very important for people to learn about racism." "The idea of a mandatory class came from our professor, [Walter Palmer], but it's not something we're graded on," Nottingham said. "We took it upon ourselves to act on this." So far, she said, they have not planned exactly what the class would focus on. "We really just want to start the debate on having a mandatory class on racism," Nottingham said. "We have no set structure for the class. We just want to start interest [in the idea]." Another project coordinator and class member, Amadee Braxton, said she thinks having a required course on racism would do more than just improve race relations on campus. "This isn't just so Penn will be a better place," the College senior said. "Taking a class like this will have larger social implications. Racism is one of the fundamental issues in contemporary society." Braxton said the group hasn't set a goal for the number of signatures they will collect before submitting the petition to the president's office, faculty members, and student leaders. She said the group hopes to continue soliciting support for the idea through the spring. A course requirement in cultural diversity is not a new phenomenon. Many colleges around the country have been considering the idea. This year, Temple University began mandating that incoming students take a core course dealing with diversity. "There had been talk about it and sentiment among the faculty that something like this was needed for a long time," said Robert Schneider, acting director of Temple's core curriculum. Students have been required to take courses in several areas of the core curriculum for years but in 1991, faculty members "decided that they missed an important aspect," Schneider said. With 14 courses to choose from, the requirement covers the topics of racism, the dynamics of race, and the whole phenomenon of race in American society. And students can choose from a variety of courses, ranging from "The image of the African-American in films from Birth of a Nation to Malcolm X" to "Racial Discrimination Under the Law" to "Minorities in Sports." "We're not pushing the party line," Schneider said. "And this is not sensitivity training. We are including the serious and diverse study of multiculturalism in the general requirement. "This is not designed to get people to think in one particular way," he continued. "Different viewpoints are represented. It's serious stuff and it's more than just emotions." Having heard no major complaints, Schneider said he can see at least 20 courses established for the requirement within a year or two. "This is us," he said of the relevance of the course to Temple. "We're already experiencing the things we're studying. We're just incorporating them into the classroom." Nationally, schools are taking Temple's lead. At Texas A&M;, the faculty senate recently passed a resolution recommending that students be required to take one course focusing on international culture and another on American culture. Texas A&M;, which harbored a long-standing reputation for conservatism, would be the first state college in Texas to have a cultural diversity requirement, if its board of regents decides to make the faculty senate's recommendation law. Reny Henry, executive director of university relations, said if the requirement is put into place, students will be able to choose from about 50 American culture classes and about 300 international culture classes. "We would not have any one course they would [have to] take," he said. "Most of these courses would relate to individual majors." Henry said over 60 percent of the 6,717 students who graduated last year would have fulfilled the proposed requirement. He added that he thinks the proposal is a good one. "We believe we need to give our students a broader education," he said. "Our students need to be able to compete in a more diverse cultural global economy." School of Arts and Sciences Dean Rosemary Stevens said that while she has not looked at what other universities have done specifically, she thinks it would "be very useful" for the Student Committee on Undergraduate Education and the Committee on Undergraduate Education to look carefully at the idea of mandating such a course at the University. "Race is one of the big themes of today, and social class is a second one," Stevens said. "Race is of vital importance to anyone studying contemporary culture, world culture, and U.S. culture." History Professor Alan Kors said, though, that courses in race relations are created in "bad faith." "They don't mean cultural diversity, they mean political indoctrination," he said. Kors added that "real human diversity" extends beyond the University's perspective. "The more the University officially tries to facilitate group relations, the worse, rather than the better, those relations become."

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