Diversity Innovations Curriculum Change

Diversity Requirement Models

Common Core Requirements

Difference, Power, and Discrimination Program, Oregon State University

The DPD Program works to create a more inclusive curriculum that addresses issues of race, class, gender, sexual orientation, and other institutionalized systems of inequality. The program provides faculty and staff with the training and resources needed to develop or modify comparative diversity courses.

University of Michigan Race or Ethnicity (ROE) Requirement
Approved by the Literature, Science, and the Arts (LS&A) faculty and effective for students entering the College of Literature, Science and the Arts (LS&A) in Fall 1991, each student must take, as part of graduation requirements, one course that addresses issues arising from racial or ethnic intolerance. This requirement is part of the Michigan Mandate, first set forth in 1988, designed to make the University of Michigan a national and world academic leader in the racial and ethnic diversity of its faculty, students, and staff and to link academic excellence and social diversity.

Cultural Studies Colloquia and Seminars, Occidental College

The first-year Cultural Studies Colloquia and Seminars comprise the centerpiece of Occidental's Core Program. The fall colloquia are team-taught courses in which faculty from several different departments join with students in the exploration of human culture from a variety of disciplinary as well as cultural perspectives. Each colloquium is followed in the spring by research seminars in which increased emphasis is placed on writing research-based essays, and on mastering the skills necessary to the location of relevant materials (in both print and electronic media), the construction of evidence-based arguments, and the conventions of academic discourse. Below are several program courses, visit the program site to view colloquia and seminars for the coming year.

Cultural Foundations Curriculum, Saint Edward's University

Saint Edward's multidisciplinary six course requirement is designed to help students develop a balanced understanding and appreciation for their own and other cultures. This site describes the general education requirement and includes a number of syllabi.

Cultural Encounters, St. Lawrence University
All courses within the Cultural Encounters Program follow curricular guidelines which specify that the courses include content from cultures commonly understood as "Western" and "non-Western. "Students in this program are asked to study other cultures while simultaneously reflecting on their own. The Program develops "writing-intensive" pedagogues, which includes exploring ways in which journals connect students' personal experiences with the academic content of the program, particularly in relation to study abroad. Courses in the Cultural Encounters Program include:

  1. Creating Colonialism: the Literature of Exploitation and Cultural Contact
  2. Religious Studies 248N: Fundamentalism as Cultural Encounter
  3. History 247: The Rise of the New Europe
  4. Fine Arts/Cultural Encounters 220: The Museum as Cultural Crossroads
  5. Greek Poetry, Philosophy, and Politics in a Multicultural Context

A Sample of New Curricular Models for Diversity Learning
From a 1997 issue of Diversity Digest focusing on curriculum transformation, this article provides short overviews of curricular models for general education programs and courses infused with information about U.S. pluralism, issues of social justice, and democratic aspiration.

Skagit Valley College General Education Requirement with Guidelines for Implementation.

American Pluralism and the Search for Equality

SUNY-Buffalo has instituted a one-semester core course requirement in American Pluralism for every student at this large public research university. Courses meeting the requirement come from many departments, but all sections must address common goals and criteria. Included here are a) a course overview; b) the course evaluation form; c) section descriptions from 1996-97; and d) reading lists from several dozen sections.

  1. 'American Pluralism and the Search for Equality' Course Overview
  2. Course Evaluation Form
  3. Section Descriptions from 1996-97
  4. Syllabi from 1996-97

American Cultures' Archive: University of California at Berkeley.
All Berkeley students must take a course that explores comparatively the diversity of America's constituent cultural traditions. This site describes criteria for American Cultures courses and includes a growing number of syllabi.

The Fairleigh Dickinson University Core Program

Fairleigh Dickinson University has for ten years addressed American pluralism and comparative world cultures in a four-semester required core curriculum taken by all students. The four courses include 'Perspectives on the Individual,' 'The American Experience: Quest for Freedom,' 'Cross-Cultural Perspectives,' and 'Global Issues.' Included here are the 1996-7 syllabi for each course, an assessment of student views on the core and an assessment of faculty views.

  1. Syllabi for all four courses
  2. Assessment of Student Views on the Core
  3. Assesment of Faculty Views on the Core
Questions, comments, and suggested resources should be directed to Hugo Najera at diversityweb@aacu.org.
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