Posted: 05/02/07

Broaden your horizons
UVM to institute six-credit diversity requirement

Abby Robitaille | contributing writer
arobitaille@smcvt.edu

“I’ve lived here for three years, and in that time I’ve seen more diversity visually in Burlington,” Kathryn Friedman, executive director of UVM’s Diversity and Equity Unit says. “It’s happening on UVM also, slowly." (Abby Robitaille, photo)

Beginning in the fall of 2007, the University of Vermont will require all undergraduate students to fulfill a six-credit diversity requirement. Students will be required to take two courses that will cover two different aspects of diversity, in an effort to raise diversity awareness and prepare them for life after graduation.

Lessons in diversity for a homogenous campus

The UVM student population is overwhelmingly Caucasian, with white students comprising 94 percent of the student body, according to statistics from UVM Admissions. Asian American and Hispanic students each make up two percent and African American students comprise one percent. The remaining one percent of students are classified as “other." In such a homogenous environment, it is important for all students to receive education about diversity, says Kathryn Friedman,
executive director of UVM’s Diversity and Equity Unit.

“There are still too many bias incidents on campus,” Friedman says. “There is way too much hate.”

Problems on campus are not limited to race issues, but also include incidents with members of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Questioning and Ally community (LGBTQA) and women, among others, according to Friedman.

“Not only UVM but quite a few schools around the nation have instituted a mandatory diversity requirement for students,“ says Moise St. Louis, associate dean of students and director of multicultural affairs at St. Michael’s. “UVM is not the first.”

The proposal for the new requirement cites a wish to match this national trend.

First proposed by the President’s Commission on Racial Diversity in 2005, the diversity requirement will begin in 2007, with the class of 2011 being the first class to graduate with the requirement. The requirement will start out as only three credits in the fall, and will later move up to six.

Diversity competency

According to the proposal for the requirement, the goal is to ensure that students fulfill “diversity competencies”, which cover a broad spectrum of diversity issues and prepare them to live in a diverse world.

Students will be required to take one three-credit course in Diversity Category I, Race and Racism in the U.S., and either a second three-credit course Diversity Category I, or one in Diversity Category II, Human and Societal Diversity.

The courses which count towards fulfilling the requirement will be spread across a wide range of major fields, and, according to the proposal, will “to the extent possible, fulfill existing core requirements in the Schools and Colleges in order to avoid increasing the total credits necessary for graduation.”

Lacey Walker, left, says the need for diversity stems from Vermont's homogeneity. (Willa Koerner, photo)

“I haven’t heard any pushback from students,” Friedman says. “When these types of things happen, there’s a lot of consultation. The SGA (Student Government Association) was talked to and had input.”

Some students, despite Friedman's claim, don't like the new requirement.

“Diversity is good, but I don’t think that forced diversity like this is necessarily a good thing,” says Anya Brodrick, a UVM sophomore. “I guess it’s kind of necessary because we’re in Vermont, and there isn’t much diversity here.”

Lacey Walker, another sophomore, agrees that the need stems from Vermont‘s homogeneity.

“I think it’s a good idea, because there’s such a low level of diversity in Vermont,” she says. “It’s important that people get exposed it.”

“It will reach well beyond the borders of campus”

With such a lack of diversity in the environments of area college students, Friedman believes the new requirements will help to foster a sense of safety and acceptance among UVM students.

“When people have information, when they have an understanding of someone’s history, experience, and culture, it eliminates fear, which eliminates barriers between different races and cultures” she says. “On campus, as people discuss these issues, the information makes people feel much safer and more confident.”

Both St. Louis and Friedman have noticed an improvement in the diversity of the Burlington area.

“I’ve lived here for three years, and in that time I’ve seen more diversity visually in Burlington,” Friedman says. “It’s happening on UVM also, slowly. It has definitely improved. The level of diversity is creeping up.”

She says there are many different ways of looking at diversity, one of which is inclusion.

Friedman says educating area students will help bring awareness to the community and beyond. (Abby Robitaille, photo)

“It’s about how welcome and safe people feel in a community, and how people approach their lives,” Friedman says. “There is definitely an effort being put in here.”

With white students making up 96% of the St. Michael’s population, St. Louis says, students need to be exposed to more issues of diversity.

“I’ve certainly advocated for us to consider embedding issues of diversity and multiculturalism into the curriculum,” he says. “All of the faculty need to be more informed, and many of them are thinking about it. Students need to be prepared for navigating a diverse world. It‘s something we need to consider.”

Friedman says educating area students will help bring awareness to the community and beyond.

“It will help students carry what they learn past graduation,” she says. “It will reach well beyond the borders of the UVM campus."