POLICY STATEMENT
GENERAL EDUCATION COUNCIL POLICY ON THE CULTURAL DIVERSITY REQUIREMENT

The General Education Council policy in approving courses as satisfying the General Education cultural diversity requirement shall incorporate the following understandings:

1. A primary goal of the requirement is to promote understanding of the great diversity of peoples that have contributed to the global society we live in.  Thus, the spectrum of courses made available to the students should represent that diversity.
2. A course fulfilling this requirement will provide the opportunity to examine comprehensively a culture or cultures other than those usually receiving primary focus in the general education curriculum.
3. A course fulfilling this requirement will have as its primary focus the exploration of diversity in the context of its topic, and will incorporate a significant amount of comparison and contrast with the students’ own cultures.
4. Topical areas of these social science courses may include, but not be limited to: racial, ethnic and sexual minority studies, gender studies, and international studies. The course may have an upper or lower division designation.
5. A department that wishes to seek approval for the Cultural Diversity designation for a course must submit a course description or draft syllabus to the General Education Council no later than the academic year term preceding the term for which approval is requested. The description or syllabus must explain how the course meets the criteria of the cultural diversity requirement as set forth above. Before the course is offered a second time, an APC form must be submitted so that the course can be listed in the Course Catalogue with the Cultural Diversity designation.

Typically, courses in the Social Science B: Cultural Diversity Category of GE will contribute to some of the following General Education Student Learning Outcomes:

II. Knowledge: Students should know:

B. The social, political, economic, and psychological world,

(1) demonstrating a general knowledge of scholarly understanding of the range of social, political, geopolitical, and economic organization

(2) demonstrating a general understanding of human development, behavior, and health

(3) demonstrating a general knowledge of American politics and society, including the experience of significant minority groups

(4) demonstrating a general knowledge of the methods and traditions of analysis in the social sciences

III. Values: Students should value:

B. The Other, demonstrating an appreciation of the Other sufficient to motivate an understanding of individuals and groups who differ in significant ways from the Self, such as differences generated by race, gender, class, and culture in both domestic and international contexts

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