UCI Adopts Multiculture Course Rule

With more than 100 students looking on, the UC Irvine Academic Senate voted unanimously Thursday to require students to study the history and culture of one or more minority groups before they graduate.

The “multicultural” course requirement, which has generated controversy at other college campuses where it has been proposed, passed with virtually no negative comment and little debate.

After the vote, a crowd of students that overflowed the small campus lecture room where the senate met gave the teachers a standing ovation.

“This is a great step forward for UCI,” said Jan Scherfig, chairman of the university’s Task Force on General Education, which proposed the requirement. “It will mean a great improvement in the undergraduate education at this school.”

UCI Chancellor Jack W. Peltason praised the efforts of professors and students in arriving at a proposal that gained campuswide support, and said the requirement will “strengthen the meaning of the (undergraduate) degree.”

“When you are living and growing in a multicultural society you should learn more about other cultures, you also increase your knowledge about your own culture,” Peltason said.

Several students echoed Peltason’s remark.

“California is in a critical stage of development with the population changing rapidly,” said Lisa Salas, who spoke at the meeting on behalf of Latino students on campus. “Our curriculum needs to reflect that diversity of population and the contributions that different cultures have made in science, math, all areas of study.”

After the multicultural requirement takes effect in the fall of 1990, all undergraduates will have to take a course exploring the history, society and politics of minorities in California or the United States.

In addition to the course on minority cultures, students will also be required to take a course on international or global issues.

University officials said UCI is the first school in the nine-campus University of California system to require both the multicultural and international-studies courses as a condition of graduation.

While the multicultural requirement has generated the most student reaction, the UCI Academic Senate also unanimously adopted a recommendation designed to strengthen math skills.

The action divides a previously combined requirement in math and foreign languages into two categories. Beginning in 1992, students will have to take three quarters of courses in a new category called “mathematics and symbolic systems,” plus three quarters of a foreign language. The language requirement will rise to four quarters in 1993.

NEW UCI COURSE REQUIREMENTS

New course requirements for UC Irvine undergraduates were adopted Thursday by the Academic Senate. Previously, undergraduates could satisfy a broad requirement in foreign language, linguistics, logic, mathematics or computer science by taking any three courses in these fields. The new requirements:

Writing--Three courses in English, writing or literature.

Natural sciences--Three courses in biology, chemistry, physics or social ecology.

Social and behavioral sciences--Three courses in anthropology, comparative culture, economics, geography, political science, or sociology and social ecology.

Humanistic inquiry--Three courses in art, literature or humanities.

*Mathematics and symbolic systems--Three quarters of a high-level mathematics or probability course.

*Language (other than English)--Four quarters of a foreign language. However, this requirement also can be met by 4 years of high school foreign-language instruction.

*Multicultural and international--A multicultural course examining the historical, social and political aspects of minorities in the United States, or an international course on foreign cultures.

*--These requirements will take effect at staggered intervals from fall, 1990, to fall, 1993.

Source: UCI Academic Senate.