On Oct. 14, astronomy professor Angela Speck, chair of the Diversity Enhancement Committee, published a [detailed proposal](https://transparency.missouri.edu/2015/10/14/proposal-for-a-diversity-requirement-update/) calling for all students to be required to take a general-education level diversity class. The class chosen is a three-credit-hour course titled Educational, School and Counseling Psychology 2000: Experiencing Cultural Diversity in the United States. The university currently offers two sections of this class each semester.
In light of recent events occurring both on campus and nationwide, much attention has been drawn to the issue of diversity and cultural competency on MU’s campus.
The Diversity Enhancement Committee is currently in the stage of gaining support for the first step of the proposal, which is to launch a pilot study of the course, running about 20 sections for 600 students.
In May 2011, a similar proposal for a diversity course requirement was presented to faculty members and subsequently shut down, [according to previous Maneater reporting](https://www.themaneater.com/stories/2010/10/15/diversity-course-requirement-remains-stalled-facul/). The votes for the proposal were 210-232, with the proposal being sent to about 1,200 faculty members.
Speck believes the failure of the original proposal stemmed from a lack of deliberate conversation, which is why she is making a point to ask for feedback from both faculty and the MU community.
“I’m trying to reach out to make it clear that anyone who wants to be involved can be involved,” Speck said. “I want all the feedback. I want all the concerns. I want to know what the things are that I haven’t thought of.”
Speck hopes to get the pilot study approved and launched in the next semester, which would then run over the next calendar year. In the meantime, steps have been taken on campus to improve cultural competence.
Speck said many of the issues she sees on campus regarding lack of diversity have to do with ignorance. She hopes a required course would combat the lack of knowledge and help breed a more accepting community.
“Starting with (the events in) Ferguson, it has become more and more clear that we have a problem on campus of how certain minorities are treated,” Speck said. “And it’s not just race, although I would say that race is the most apparent, but it’s not the only one. We have some issues that we need to address, and a lot of it is born of ignorance.”
In addition to a required course for students, the proposal also outlines diversity training for faculty and graduate students in order to allow them to integrate issues of diversity into their own courses.
Journalism professor Berkley Hudson, chair of the Faculty Council’s committee on race relations, also sits on the Diversity Enhancement committee. Hudson realizes the difficulty of getting staff to support a proposal.
“How do we enlist the faculty to gather around and appreciate that this could be useful to the health of the entire community of the University of Missouri?” Hudson said. “So that’s the tricky part that we are working with now.”
Faculty members have expressed concern about the proposal, specifically concerning its rigor and its effect on the distribution of credit throughout the departments, Speck said.
She said that while imposing a new required course may replace some 1000-level courses in smaller departments, she believes that the diversity course would spark interest in students to pursue degrees in those smaller departments.
“My prediction is that we will increase majors and minors in those small departments that could be hurt, departments like women’s and gender studies and black studies,” Speck said. “But I don’t know that without doing a pilot study.”
Another concern voiced by faculty is that as an academic requirement, the course will not be rigorous enough.
“There are several people who have expressed concern about the rigor of the course, that it is too shallow,” Speck said. “However, I would say that the intention of this is to be part of the gen-ed requirement and if we have think about how we teach gen-ed courses … the diversity course is not intended to turn people in to social justice warriors. It’s intended to open their eyes to this and make them understand the importance of these topics.”
On Oct. 8, Chancellor R. Bowen Loftin announced that beginning January 2016, all first-time students will be required to take a [training program](https://transparency.missouri.edu/2015/10/08/diversity-and-inclusion-training/) on the issue of racism prior to enrolling in classes.
Both Hudson and Speck said they were unsure on how this recent announcement will affect the status of their proposal, but they do say that the two go hand in hand. For now, they believe that the training program is a good place to start.
“Change has to happen from top to bottom and all throughout,” Hudson said. “At the student’s level, the staff level, the administration level, at the chancellor’s level, for us to have a productive, rewarding and enriching experience as an educational community. And we can make the choice every day whether or not we want to make that change happen.”