Diversity course requirement stagnant for two years

Despite initial support, a diversity proposal limped toward a Faculty Council review.

By Zachary Murdock

Published Oct. 12, 2010

This is the second part of a three-part series on the diversity general education course requirement.

It took pushes from two directions to get talks about a general education diversity course requirement off the ground -- a letter from the Legion of Black Collegians and a report from the Chancellor's Diversity Initiative.

Although both students and administrators backed proposals, it has been more than five years, and such a requirement does not yet exist.

Among the list of 34 public Association of American Universities institutions, more than 20 have some kind of existing requirement for a diversity course, Chief Diversity Officer Roger Worthington said.

MU is listed as having a partial requirement, partly because of students' ability to voluntarily apply for and take classes fulfilling the Multicultural Certificate program.

"The Multicultural Certificate is a voluntary thing," Deputy Chancellor Mike Middleton said. "If somebody wants to get one, they do it by choice, but that's sort of like singing to the choir."

The purpose of a mandatory diversity requirement, he said, is so all students are exposed to fundamental diversity concepts.

Initial Efforts

Following the Campus Climate Study, an initial push to impact diversity on campus led to several changes in the administration and by students.

As a result of the campus-wide study, a task force was charged to tackle a list of recommendations addressing diversity. The task force's report spurred MU to create the Chancellor's Diversity Initiative in 2006 and to appoint Roger Worthington its chief diversity officer.

Worthington said the initiative was created to serve campus diversity as a whole.

"The Chancellor's Diversity Initiative is based on the definition of diversity that is much broader than race in particular, and also is much broader than just conceptualizing diversity in terms of numbers," he said.

Worthington said the initiative used the Campus Climate and Training Task Force Report as a blueprint when work began to improve the diversity climate on campus, and a task force was created specifically to address the prospect of a diversity course requirement.

A diversity course requirement was also backed by students.

In 2005, before the creation of the initiative, the Legion of Black Collegians presented a letter to the MU Executive Office and Chancellor Brady Deaton containing a list of demands regarding issues surrounding the MU black community.

In addition to the list of recommendations, the LBC's list of demands ushered in a new era for diversity issues on campus, an era of progress and accountability.

"There's been a slow-moving but continuous effort since then to make that happen," Worthington said.

Broken Timelines

Over the course of several years, some of the Campus Climate and Training Task Force and LBC recommendations have been adopted.

Of the LBC's list of demands, several have been accomplished, including an honorary degree for Lloyd Gaines, for whom the Gaines/Oldham Black Culture Center is named, as well as the development of the Multicultural Certificate program.

Although the task force was initially given until the fall of 2006 to complete a review of a general education diversity course requirement, the deadline passed without result.

"The recommendations in that report all had timelines and action steps," Worthington said. "As is normally the case, timelines are set and people end up often times extending beyond the timeline."

For two years, the student-and administration-backed diversity course requirement failed to make substantial, forward progress toward becoming official university policy.

The proposal became entangled with a looming review of the general education architecture, Vice Provost for Undergraduate Studies Jim Spain said. An ad hoc task force, chaired by President Emeritus of the UM System Mel George, was created to enhance teaching and learning at MU and prepared a report.

"Our interviews uncovered some cynicism about General Education on the campus," the committee report stated. "Some describe it as 'Byzantine' as well as unimaginative. Eventually, General Education needs to be revisited and re-invigorated."

Deputy Chancellor Mike Middleton said when the diversity proposal came forward, it was decided the requirement be included in the entire general education review.

Debates about the review and requirement initially bogged down both proposals, he said. Two years passed in discussion and debate. Finally, it led to the combination of the education review with an emphasis on the course requirement.

"The issue just got more and more complex as the various campus players were beginning to talk about how to crack this nut," he said.

A review of the general education architecture is a difficult issue to address with many complications, Middleton said.

"Curricular change is a complex issue, and it does take time to work out all the details and all the kinks," he said. "It would be irresponsible to say that the time that it has taken to vet this issue completely has been too long. It's just hard to identify how long it ought to take."

Meetings Advance Proposal

It was not until fall 2007 that the Chancellor's Diversity Initiative met with students and Spain, who took up the issue after being appointed vice provost for undergraduate studies that year.

Worthington explained the task force reports from 2005 laid the basis for the proposal addressed in the meetings in 2007.

"So within a period of time after that report was produced and then disseminated, we then, three years ago, took a step forward and started working with Jim Spain to advance that proposal," he said.

Spain said the meetings were designed to identify the educational goals surrounding a diversity course requirement.

"Those meetings were really to clarify what would be the learning outcomes that would be targeted as the educational goal, and then, what are some effective ways for us to reach those logical educational outcomes," Spain said. "What are different models and what model would most likely be successful when implemented here at MU?"

Over the course of several meetings, students representing Four Front, LBC, Missouri Students Association and others made presentations and engaged in dialogue with Deaton and administrators about the role of a diversity course on campus.

Former Four Front Chairwoman ChaToyya Sewell presented to the committee last fall, and addressed the groups' concerns about the requirement, including politicization of the courses and student apathy.

Sewell said there was a disconnect between the need for the course and faculty who did not see the urgency of a proposal.

"I think the resistance of Faculty Council is going to be the biggest problem (to approving a requirement)," Sewell said. "A lot of faculty thought there wasn't an issue driving the proposal."

Following the vandalism of the Black Culture Center in February, many people in the MU and Columbia communities voiced their concerns, which, Sewell said, highlighted diversity issues on campus.

Fortunately, the incident at the center is not a common one, Sewell said.

"People tend to focus on this very obvious act of racism, as opposed to the more subvert acts of oppression which occur everyday," she said.

For Now

The general education review now sits with the Academic Affairs Committee and must be reviewed by the committee before it is presented to Faculty Council.

From the council, the proposed general education revisions will be disseminated across campus and discussed at a faculty forum. If the entirety of the revisions are approved, the diversity course requirement could take effect as soon as next fall, Faculty Coucil Chairwoman Leona Rubin said.

The review will not be implemented in pieces, but as one complete revision, Rubin said. If one of the general education architecture revisions is not approved, the whole review will be suspended until full approval.