Students push for required courses in race, ethnic studies

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The calls for racial justice in cities across the U.S. are also happening in the classroom. This week, Molly Stellino reports on students and faculty members who are asking that curriculum be more inclusive and address race. -- Delece Smith-Barrow

When Morgan Ottley, a neuroscience major at the University of Pittsburgh, noticed in the spring of her sophomore year that most of her teachers did not address racial disparities in the medical field, she wanted the university to change its curriculum. Where, she thought, was the instruction on how shingles appear on the skin of Black people? Why was there no mention of Black scientists, like Alexa Canady, who had made noteworthy progress in these fields?

Ottley, now a senior, is pushing Pittsburgh to make classes more inclusive. “Something's gotta give,” she said. “Why am I not learning about people who look like me?”

Ottley is the president of the Black Action Society, which represents the needs and concerns of Black students at the university. Hers is one of several student groups across the country calling on universities to make courses on race and ethnicity a graduation requirement.

Pittsburgh has been more responsive to its students’ requests than most universities. A one-credit course on “systemic anti-Black racism and anti-racism” will be required for all freshmen beginning in fall 2020.

“In order to really curate a well-rounded student, in order to curate a real well-rounded professional, there’s conversations that you need to have,” Ottley said. “There’s things you need to learn about. And race just so happens to be one of them.”

The California State University system has also made ethnic studies a graduation requirement. In August, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the change into state law, the first adjustment to the general education curriculum in 40 years. It will be implemented for freshmen in the 2021-22 academic year. And Western Washington University announced in July that it would add a “requirement focused on African American studies and structural anti-Black racism.” Several other schools are considering similar additions.

Calls to make curricula more diverse and inclusive are not new, but activists hope to use the momentum of the Black Lives Matter movement to spur change. “What makes it different is that now we have news coverage,” Ottley said. “We have media outlets who are interested in actually creating stories on these things.”

Advocate for this curricular change say students need to learn about a breadth of subjects so they can make informed decisions in their community. Although some universities require students to fulfill a diversity requirement, not all the classes offered to fulfill that requirement address systemic racism against marginalized communities, some students and faculty members say.

The new course at Pittsburgh began when Kenyon Bonner, the vice provost and dean of students, arranged a meeting in June with Ottley and other Black students to discuss the campus climate with senior administration officials.

Leaders from Black student groups then surveyed more than 150 Black students about their experiences at the university. Respondents mentioned instructors using racial slurs, fear of the police and a hesitation about reporting racist incidents.

The students then showed the administrators the survey results and a list of 24 demands, including “a mandatory introductory course to touch upon systemic racism, white privilege, and prejudices.”

Efforts elsewhere have been less successful.

In August, students in the Racial Justice Coalition at the University of Massachusetts Amherst asked for a new social-justice general education requirement, according to Zach Steward, a junior studying African American studies and legal studies. The group is now working to gain faculty support for this and then hopes to meet with administrators to discuss it.

At Brigham Young University in Utah, senior Kennedy Madrid started a petition in June in support of making race and ethnicity classes a graduation requirement; by late August it had about 19,000 signatures, she said. But administrators have not yet responded to her request for a meeting.

Opponents of mandating courses on race argue that these classes should be optional, and that requiring them will make graduating more difficult.

“Students attending a CSU already have the choice to take an ethics studies class if they so choose,” California Sen. Brian Jones, who voted against the bill to make ethnic studies a CSU graduation requirement, said in an emailed statement. “However forcing students to take an ethnic studies class, which will likely result in cutting out one of their classes focused on their career development and possibly delaying their graduation and entry into the workforce, is not appropriate nor wise.”

But supporters point to a fundamental reason for general education requirements: universities’ responsibility to develop a well-rounded student.

Theresa Montaño, a professor of Chicana and Chicano studies at the University of California Northridge, said the history of marginalized communities is not commonly known, and this hinders progress. “If we are serious about democracy, if we are serious about citizen participation, if we are serious about attacking racism in this country, then [ethnic studies] is as important as taking a U.S. history course,” she said.

David-James Gonzales, an assistant professor of history at BYU and member of a subcommittee to develop a potential diversity requirement, thinks professors of other disciplines should integrate the coverage of race and ethnicity within classes they already teach – and believes many are starting to do so.

When he visited the Utah campus over the summer to check his mailbox, Gonzales saw books by Black authors in his colleagues’ mailboxes.

“I can see the desire in my colleagues to inform themselves first,” he said. “And that's the first step. The first step is listening, informing yourself, learning.”

Do you think colleges and universities should make some courses in racial justice or ethnic studies requirements? How else should higher education institutions deal with these issues? How can students make sure their voices are heard? Email or tweet me your thoughts.

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Students push for required courses in race, ethnic studies

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