Diversity Proposal Holds Off Most Amendments to Pass

by Linda Charles
A diversity requirement for students was approved by the 
Faculty Senate May 2, following several last-minute attempts 
to reword and divide it.

The requirement, which will go into effect in 1997, has two 
components: a three-credit U.S. requirement that addresses 
human diversity within our society and a three-credit 
international requirement that provides a foreign culture 
context for the analysis and interpretation of world 
conditions.

Some senators, such as Jim Hutter, political science, tried 
to divide the requirement so that each component could be 
voted on separately. Hutter also sought to substitute a 
foreign language requirement for the international component. 
Both attempts failed.

Other senators attempted to send the requirement back to its 
author, the Faculty Senate Curriculum Committee, to further 
define what is meant by diversity and to prepare a list of 
courses that would meet the requirement. Those motions also 
failed.

Also defeated was a more general version of the requirement 
that included a similar U.S. component and an international 
component that would have required students to learn about a 
culture other than their own. Under that motion, college 
curriculum committees would hammer out the details of the 
requirement.

"I think we all agree we should have this requirement," said 
Joanna Courteau, foreign languages and literatures, who 
offered the motion with Stephen Ford, animal sciences. "But I 
think we could quibble for years to come about which courses, 
who will decide, how it will be done. My motion is a do-able 
one."

Courteau and Ford's motion was defeated 40-35.

Under the new requirement, each academic department will 
determine what students can do to fulfill the requirements 
for their majors, subject to approval by the appropriate 
college curriculum committee and the Faculty Senate 
Curriculum Committee. Generally, students will take courses, 
but equivalent experiences also may be used to meet the 
requirement.

Two motions did succeed -- one to delete the words "present-
day" and "modern" from descriptions of the two components, 
and a second to review the effectiveness of the requirement 
in the year 2002.

The last motions came just before the vote. Hamilton Cravens, 
history, asked for a written ballot, but several objected.

"Hiding behind a secret ballot in this case is cowardly," 
Courteau said.

Corly Petersen, human development and family studies, agreed. 
"I was elected by my constituency, I polled my constituency 
and I would like to go on the record," she said.

Craven's motion failed, 47-24. Another motion to hold a roll 
call vote also failed, 42-28. In the end, senators stood to 
be counted as they passed the diversity requirement by a 42-
36 vote.

While the diversity requirement was approved by the senate, 
its language may change somewhat as the requirement makes the 
rounds to various committees as part of the general procedure 
for placing items in the university catalog.

The senate will meet for the last time this semester at 7:30 
p.m. Tuesday, May 9, in 2532 Veterinary Medicine, to elect 
new officers.


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contact:  Linda Charles, Internal Communications, (515) 294-
3129
updated:  5-4-95