Director of African American Diaspora Studies Tracey Patton and Director of Chicano Studies Professor Cece Aragon
Professors and administrators plan to protest the university’s proposed curriculum involving the Global and Diversity requirements.
The University of Wyoming attempts to offer a vast assortment of classes in order for students to fulfill these University Studies Program’s (USP) in order to graduate with a well-rounded and knowledgeable education. Recently, a handful of administrators have submitted a new resolution so students not only retain the diversity education, but also push forward to graduate in no more than four years.
There will be a meeting this afternoon available for the public to attend from 3:30-5:00 p.m. in room 222 of the Classroom Building. The main speaker will be Provost Maggie Murdock and she will be discussing the proposed elimination of the Diversity and Global requirements in the USP.
With the new USP system, students will be able to graduate without ever taking courses centered on Diversity, Global and Foreign Languages. Due to this adjustment to the curriculum, members of the African American Diaspora Studies, Gender and Women’s Studies and the Chicano Studies have chosen to speak up in protest.
Dr. Tracey Patton, Director of the African American and Diaspora studies, said the students will be at a disadvantage due to the fact that changes similar to these in other universities are not occurring.
“Other universities it still is where diversity is centered. An emphasis on foreign language, an emphasis on domestic diversity, global diversity,” Patton said. “ Those all seem to be really important and centered. If they are not centered at the university of Wyoming the students are missing out on that education.”
Cecilia Aragón, Director of the Chicano Studies Program, agreed with Patton, saying it is an injustice to students because it is revoking classes that create future citizens of the state and the nation.
“I think our best interest is to really consider the quality of education we are giving to our students,” Aragon said. “We are going to create the next generation of leaders and we’re giving them a very minimal education.”
The new USP requirement will be labeled as Human Culture and be taken as an “HC” credit. This curriculum includes disenfranchised diversity, global, foreign languages, cultural humanities and cultural arts classes. It also eliminates the diversity, global and foreign language requirements originally put into place.
Marlin Holmes, Association of Black Student Leaders member, said he found it a disservice to the students by taking away these opportunities.
“Coming here from Georgia Tech I thought it was cool that there were official humanities and language requirements, because Wyoming is such a homogenous culture,” Holmes said.
The University Studies Program’s stated goal was to prepare students to become “active citizens in a diverse society by learning to appreciate the viewpoint and deal with complex issues of other through multi- and inter-disciplinary inquiry.”
Cathy Connolly, Director of the Gender and Women Studies Program, said it was a regrettable choice by the university and the administration to “water down the curriculum.”
“I get calls from employers that students use me as a reference for and one of the questions often is: the students ability to work with a wide variety of people with a wide variety of backgrounds. These employers want to be assured that these students coming from Wyoming have that kind of exposure,” Connolly said.
