UT (Univ of Texas) president proposes required diversity class

Houston Chronicle ^ | 5/11/04 | TODD ACKERMAN

[JennysCool]

"We'd like to position UT to be a more positive agent in developing students' knowledge and skills so they can work across cultural boundaries in a complex society," said Faulkner. "I believe many frictions come from ignorance, discomfort and a lack of skills in perceiving differences."

They got him, all right.

[Gefreiter]

"This requirement will not tell people what to think," said Faulkner. "It will be a chance for students to learn about a culture not their own."

Interesting. The day that an institution of higher ed REQUIRES non-white students to take a course about a European culture is the day I eat my own shoe.

Personally, I think it would be alot easier if we just not admit white people to schools anymore. That way no one can be offended. Well, no one who matters anyway- all those white folks who would cry about it are just racists anyway, and can just use their white privilege to get ahead without a degree. [/bitch]

[weegee]

Cornell Rejects Academic Freedom

[vandykelastone]

What UT needs is not these classes, but a new president.

[bayourod]

"Faulkner invited feedback on whether the diversity officer should be a vice president, vice provost or associate to the president"

But no feedback is needed to assure that he/she will be black.

[purple haze]

I attend the University of Michigan, which, due to last summer's affirmative action lawsuits, has heard more than its share of the term 'diversity.' This has got to be gaining as the most commonly misused word in academia, rapidly becoming synonymous with 'that which is good.'

The UM defended its affirmative action program on the grounds that diversity of the student body presented an educational benefit to all, and that this benefit outweighed the unfairness involved in factoring a student's race in the admissions decisions.

Yet, when a conservative state congressman recently raised questions about the lack of political diversity on the mostly liberal UM campus, president Mary Sue Coleman responded to the effect that it would be unconstitutional to ask people their political beliefs on the application.

It seems to me that whatever portion of the Constitution Coleman is referring to here is at least as explicit about prohibiting the use of race in the admissions process.

I've even heard administrators around here speak about individual students as being 'diverse'--not because that particular student is proficient in a range of skills, etc., but solely because that student is a member of an underrepresented minority.

[Steelerfan]

As a graduate of the school, I have to agree with you. The notion that your skin color automatically causes you bring "diverse" skills, opinions or experiences to the table should be rejected out of hand as a racist concept. Instead, it is accepted as a critical part of the admissions process.

[Constitution Day]

[stainlessbanner]

dixie ping

[4CJ]

"This requirement will not tell people what to think," said Faulkner. "It will be a chance for students to learn about a culture not their own."

How about the idiot learning US history - he is obviously CLUELESS to the cultures that are part of our past.

[cyborg]

Another would have required undergraduates take courses on U.S. minorities or Third World or non-Western cultures.

***Very interesting.

[Moose4]

Both proposals were defeated amid cries of "political correctness," the then-fashionable criticism of conservatives that liberal professors wanted to indoctrinate students according to their ideology.

Nah, no bias in that article.

Throw the book at the idiots with the eggs and the blackface, and leave the 99% of the students who aren't idiots alone.

}:-)4

[pete anderson]

The day that an institution of higher ed REQUIRES non-white students to take a course about a European culture is the day I eat my own shoe.

I hope you have a good appetite, at the University of Texas students in the school of liberal arts are required to take a class on European history.

[catpuppy]

"But I've spent a lot of time with it, and it's my best shot at what I think the university should be."

And therein lies the problem.

[purple haze]

The notion that your skin color automatically causes you bring "diverse" skills, opinions or experiences to the table should be rejected out of hand as a racist concept.

Exactly. This is the very same sort of inference process that gets rejected out of hand as "racial profiling" in other circles. You simply cannot justify one and not the other.

[Clemenza]

I had to sit through one of these when I was an undergrad. A total waste of time for all involved, regardless of color.

[Clemenza]

Interesting indeed. Thankfully, my Latin American history professor hit home the fact that although Latin America is racially diverse, it is still very much a part of the West in many ways. After all, Latin Americans speak European languages (indigenas excepted), follow Roman/Napoleonic legal codes and have western-style concepts of family and morality (for better or for worse).

[Clemenza]

"But I've spent a lot of time with it, and it's my best shot at what I think the university should be."

SIEG HEIL! SIEG HEIL! Fueher Faulkner!

[cajun-jack]

either black or a hispanic jew that has converted to islam that is also gay.