In light of recent events regarding race, education and awareness on our campus, the value of one proposal is becoming more and more evident. At present, there appears to be a necessity for students at the University to engage in discourse that will open their eyes and ears to one another's differences, and allow them to educate themselves on all of the perspectives, contemporary and historical, that serve as a foundation within this institution. Students need to be engaged in an institutional program that fosters a better understanding of cultural differences, societal norms, collective history and racial and cultural acceptance as well as tolerance. If it intends to succeed as the nation's foremost provider of public higher education in the United States, the University must create such a program and present it in a progressive light.
At institutions comparable to the University, multi-cultural instruction or diversity education is a pillar of all aspects of university life, from student programming to residence life to course offerings. Although they are still in the beginning stages, schools such as Dartmouth, Brown and the universities of Michigan and Maryland are instituting programs that specifically target the cultural education of their students, so that upon graduation, students can be described as culturally versatile or competent. These universities have been leaders in the effort to institutionalize diversity as a core value -- and both students and faculty reap the benefits of having variety in the kinds of students and administrators present at the institution.
By way of seminars and discussion groups on multiculturalism at the universities' orientation sessions, through diversity education training at faculty meetings, and by presenting students with a course curriculum that addresses issues in cultural consciousness that are specific to fields of endeavor, these universities are actively looking to integrate culturalism within the framework of their institutional values. Students are offered classes such as "Globalization in Minority American Communities," "The Economics of Aging" and "Sexuality, Culture and Colonialism" at UC-Berkeley, to enhance both their academic and cultural knowledge capital. Meanwhile, alumni and parents can even donate money to the University of California Affirmative Fund, which supports institutional programs that foster cultural learning through student programs and creates a more comfortable climate for the ever-changing and expanding diverse student body.
Here in Charlottesville, the University needs to be at the forefront of remodeling the national education paradigm, for which diversity is a core value. The University's mission, as stated within the documents and policies section of the University's Web site, is "to strive for diversity in the student body and in the faculty" and to provide both parties with "an atmosphere conducive to fellowship and understanding and to their constructive participation in the affairs of the University." If the University is to follow through on the axiom of this mission, then we must institutionalize our own educational mandate. Diversity and issues in cultural competence must be addressed in the academic realm of the University and not simply the administrative.
Although it is just as important that the University continue with programs that foster cross-cultural growth such as First-Year Seminar and the emerging leaders programs, on a much greater scale the University must implement a system of academic educational values that address ideas such as identity, history and institutional memory across all color and cultural lines. Even without comparing the University to rival institutions, a program for multicultural education definitely has its place in today's University because of the great service it would provide our students, who desperately need to be informed and culturally educated.
A multicultural course, in broad educational form, could be a mandatory class for first-year students, where issues from various perspectives are addressed within a survey format, much like the University seminars. Topics in Asian-American culture, gay and lesbian perspectives, and the history of interaction between blacks and whites on at least U.Va's college campus are some examples of what should be addressed at some point during everyone's collegiate experience here, if students are to obtain a holistic and cross-cultural education.
Academic departments at the University also need to take an inventory of the way they address diversity in the core curriculum, and how that reflects on the University as a institution. As they determine the credit valueof classes in their upcoming faculty hearings, professors and department chairs also need to address what kinds of challenges not having a multi-cultural education course presents.
In light of the recent discussion about the inclusion of multi-cultural education in the core curriculum, many may challenge the idea by saying that adding diversity awareness to the course curriculum will take away from the educational values this University already offers. However, faculty and administrators must understand that the diversification of the student experience will ultimately make the students of the University more culturally aware of people they will interact with in the future. Upon graduation, students will be more prepared to enter the diverse workforce, they will be more marketable to potential employers, and the University will benefit from the positive implications of creating a diverse atmosphere in the student body and in academic course offerings.
If the point of higher education is to prepare students for success after college, and part of the institutional mission of this University is to continue the proliferation of its legacy, then enacting a proposal that will better enhance the University experience for students couldn't be anything but a positive step. Students at present would be better educated from enhanced diversity within our academic curriculum, and future students will want to attend U.Va. even more, knowing that they will be gaining an experience that is both academically and socially sound -- an education in more ways than just one.
(Kazz Alexander Pinkard's column usually appears Mondays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at kpinkard@
cavalierdaily.com.)
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