More than 80 students and faculty met in Varsity Hall Monday to discuss revamping the university’s ethnic studies requirement.
The Ethnic Studies Roundtable event, organized by the Associated Students of Madison Diversity Committee and the Wisconsin Union Directorate Society and Politics branch, featured a presentation on the history of the requirement, spoken word performances, and discussions led by members of the committee.
ASM Diversity Committee member Beth Huang gave a presentation on the history of the ethnic studies requirement, a mandated class of at least three credits that students must fulfill in order to graduate, which began in fall 1989 in response to incidents targeting people of color and what many saw as a “Eurocentric” curriculum at the university.
During the feedback session many participants discussed the need for classes to be more than simply a requirement to check off a list. They cited many recent events as examples of why efforts to increase understanding of diversity are needed, such as racial slurs a participant had seen written on a campus building.
“There’s still acts of hate and crime all over campus,” senior Mary Bechtol said.
Participants also discussed the need for more topics than race to be covered by the classes, such as issues of sexual orientation and gender.
However, Ad-Hoc Diversity Plan Committee Co-Chair Michael Jackson said he believed the university should end the requirement completely and instead promote “a diverse and inclusive environment” through workshops teaching students to be leaders and how to work with students of different backgrounds.
“While ethnic studies was a good idea, I’m not sure its been effective in practice,” Jackson said. “I don’t think you can become culturally aware by taking a course on one particular demographic at one particular point in time.”
ASM Diversity Committee Chair Mia Akers said she thought the event was successful and said she appreciated the “honest feedback” from attendees.
The committee will work on finding general themes in participants’ suggestions to pass on to the Ad-Hoc Diversity Plan Committee that is currently drafting a new campus Diversity Plan, Akers said.
