UCI May Adopt Ethnic Course as Requirement

UC Irvine, which now has a greater percentage of Asian students than any other UC campus, is expected to adopt a “multicultural” course requirement today aimed at promoting understanding between racial and ethnic groups.

The proposed requirement, similar in form to one that has stirred controversy at UC Berkeley for more than a year, is believed certain to win approval of the UCI Academic Senate, which sets all curricula for the campus. It would take effect in the fall of 1990, when all undergraduates would be required to take a course examining the historical, social and political aspects of minorities in the United States or in foreign cultures before graduation.

Only UC Santa Cruz now requires all undergraduates to take such a course. At UC Riverside, all majors in the College of Humanities and Sciences must fulfill an ethnic studies requirement, and the university’s second school, the College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, may impose the same requirement.

Although consideration of the requirement grew out of a 1986 report that made broad recommendations for improving undergraduate education throughout the UC system, it comes comes amid tensions between student ethnic groups at UCI and at a time when the university is struggling to recruit and retain under-represented minority students and faculty.

UCI undergraduate enrollment figures show growing numbers of Asians but declining or stable percentages of blacks and Latinos.

In less than a decade, the number of Asian undergraduate students has quadrupled, and their percentage has doubled from 15% of all students in the fall of 1980 to 33.5% last fall. At the same time, the number of Latino students has grown, but their share of the undergraduate population has remained at about 8%. The percentage of blacks has actually declined from 3.5% in 1980 to 2.7% in the fall of 1988, university officials said.

UCI Has Top Percentage

While UCI trails UCLA and Berkeley in percentages of black and Latino enrollment, its Asian enrollment is unrivaled by either school. Asian enrollment is now about 26% at Berkeley, which has the second-largest Asian population in the UC system.

At UCI, Academic Senate Chairman Howard Lenhoff said the multicultural course is needed both to improve harmony on campus and to prepare students to become citizens of an international community.

“If we are to be a forward-moving university and provide our students with some knowledge of who their neighbors are here and internationally, we really need this requirement,” Lenhoff said. “I don’t see any problem with passage.”

By contrast, Berkeley’s Academic Senate last year defeated an emotionally debated “American Cultures” mandate. It would have required that all Berkeley students take a course on American history or culture, or choose from other courses that devote more than half their content to the study of two of the four major U.S. minority groups.

Opponents charged that the plan ignored other minorities, and a revised proposal, which expands the minority groups identified to five, is expected to come up for debate at Berkeley on April 25.

Under Investigation

Berkeley, along with Harvard University, is under investigation by the U.S. Department of Education for alleged anti-Asian bias. Berkeley Chancellor Michael Heyman last week publicly apologized for admission policies that resulted in fewer qualified Asians.

Last week, a state legislative report recommended stepped-up minority hiring at all UC campuses and called for expanded ethnic studies as one way to bridge cultural gaps.

But the UCI campus has been perceived as generally welcoming Asians, university officials and some Asian students said.

“On the statewide grapevine among Asians, the word is out: Irvine is a great place to be,” said Horace Mitchell, UCI vice chancellor for student affairs.

Students and administrators cite as reasons: the extensive social and cultural network formed by 4,360 Asian undergraduates already at UCI, the appointment last year of Chang-Lin Tien, who is Chinese, as executive vice chancellor and second in command, and plans to establish an East Asian studies department.

But UCI has not been without tensions, and several recent incidents of racial prejudice or insensitivity have been disturbing to minorities and administration officials.

Reprimands Issued

Reprimands were issued last year after members of two fraternities and a sorority performed in blackface makeup during a campus musical production. Another fraternity, which promoted a party with a flier depicting a Mexican sleeping against a cactus, agreed to submit future posters to a multi-ethnic student group for review.

Another flap erupted last December when the editors of East-West Ties, an alternative newspaper on campus, published a gag ad offering Asian students to take tests for Caucasians. The ad subsequently was retracted after student government leaders threatened to withdraw the newspaper’s subsidy.

In recent campus interviews, UCI students voiced strong support for the proposed ethnic-understanding requirement, which would be fulfilled by taking one of several courses to be designed after the faculty vote. But they also acknowledged that students study and socialize primarily with others of the same ethnic background and said it will take more than a class to promote greater social interaction.

Black and Latino students have complained of isolation and occasional instances of overt prejudice. Many Asians said they feel resented by some students for their perceived overall high academic achievement. At the same time, they chafe at the stereotype that all Asians are whiz kids majoring in computer science or engineering.

Non-Asian students “tend to lump us together,” said Shannon Chon, who is Korean. “They expect us to know numbers and be great in math. Well, I’m into writing, and it bugs me when friends come to me for help with math problems and say, ‘You should know. Why don’t you know?’ ”

Chris Carder, a freshman, said his fraternity has a few Asians and one black among its members. But such social mixing, even on a small scale, is the exception, he conceded.

“You usually see whites sitting with whites, Asians with Asians, blacks with blacks,” said Carder, who is white. “I guess people tend to group with people like them. That’s where they feel most comfortable and accepted.”

And Courtney Davis, a junior biology major, repeated a joke that he has heard often during his first year at UCI but does not find amusing. UCI, the joke goes, stands for “University of Chinese Immigrants.”

“It’s the kind of stereotype you hear on campus, and I think it keeps people separated into their own groups,” said Davis, who is black.

Like Chon and Carder, Davis said the multicultural requirement is a good idea.

“Each ethnic group has its own characteristics and its own heritage,” he said. “Learning about other people and cultures will help us all to live better together.”

University Ombudsman Ron Wilson said racial incidents on campus have resulted from ignorance, and he predicted that multi-ethnic courses will prompt students to reflect on their attitudes and beliefs about others.

“This multicultural requirement will pass--if it did not, it would be a serious misstep,” Wilson said. “But the university cannot rest once this requirement is approved. It cannot sit back and think the work is done.”

ETHNIC BREAKDOWN OF UC IRVINE--Ethnic data for undergraduates a UCI compared to the UC system as a whole. Figures in parentheses denote actual number of students.

Fall, 1988 Total UCI undergraduates: 13,032 Total UC system undergraduates: 122,130 Black UC Irvine: 2.7%: (355) UC System: 4.6%: (5,124) Asian UC Irvine: 33.5%: (4,360) UC System: 16.8%: (18,659) Chicano/Latino UC Irvine: 7.8%: (1,014) UC System: 9.2: (10,244) White UC Irvine: 50.2%: (6,535) UC System: 65.3%: (72,616) Fall, 1980 Total UCI undergraduates: 7,720 Total UC system undergraduates: 97,102 Black UC Irvine: 5.0%: (390) UC System: 3.5%: (3,402) Asian UC Irvine: 15.0%: (1,159) UC System: 11.7%: (11,417) Chicano/Latino UC Irvine: 8.0%: (620) UC System: 5.5%: (5,406) White UC Irvine: 58.0%: (4,481) UC System: 68.1%: (66,166) Source: University of California, Irvine

ETHNIC MOVE--UC Irvine offers to hire a Latina librarian. Part II, Page 3.