On Feb. 21, an emergency meeting was held to discuss possible changes to the university’s diversity requirement, such as limiting course offerings to Kent Core, study abroad and international course categories.
The meeting was conducted by the University Requirements Curriculum Committee, which focuses on reviewing the university’s undergraduate requirements. These requirements include experiential learning, diversity, Kent Core and writing-intensive.
Despite Senate Bill 1 and the “Dear Colleague” letter looming over the university, Alison Smith, dean of the Honors College and administrative chair of the URCC, said the meeting was planned and not forced by any outside political action.
“We started this review last spring, so this is a normal review of the requirement,” she said. “Senate Bill 1 and all the federal documents coming out are happening at the same time right now, but they are not driving this review.”
Because no law has passed at the moment, Smith said any of those external factors can’t be taken into consideration. If any laws are passed, Smith said she would act accordingly.
“No law has actually been passed yet, so we’re just doing what we do, which is going through the revision process,” she said. “When and if laws are passed, we will get directives from the university if anything needs to be done.”
However, Smith said the URCC’s main purpose is to review requirements and make recommendations. The committee doesn’t have the power to make any final decisions. Any changes to the requirement would have to be determined by the faculty senate.
“URCC only recommends,” Smith said. “We don’t make any decisions; we look at every requirement and go over certain features.”
The URCC holds periodic monthly meetings, but called for a special meeting to move things forward to adhere to the university’s calendar schedule, Smith said. She added the meeting consisted of hearing from faculty and listening to their ideas on the diversity requirement.
Certain items brought up in discussion were enrollment, structure, possible updates and how the requirement compares to other similar requirements at Ohio universities, according to Smith.
The review process could conclude by the end of the semester or sometime in the fall, Smith said.
John Engoglia is a beat reporter. Contact him at [email protected].
