Classes which fulfill the diversity requirement at the University of Southern California do not include classes specifically on the Asian American experience, according to a blog from Sonali Seth in the Daily Trojan.
On its own website, USC says “the diversity requirement is designed to provide undergraduate students with the background knowledge and analytical skills necessary to understand and respect differences between groups of people.”
Those groups include age, disability, ethnicity, gender, language, race, religion, sexual orientation, and social class.
Seth writes:
“It seems unfair that classes based entirely on Asian cultures do not qualify for the diversity requirement. Why should the Filipino, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Pacific Islander and Indian communities be excluded from the conversation about diversity — especially since 23 percent of the USC student population is Asian?”
If you attend USC, what has your experience been? How about those of you who attend other universities? Do you have a diversity requirement and what type of classes fulfill it? Should classes based on specific groups qualify as diversity or should such classes encompass a cross section of groups?
Read Seth’s blog in the Daily Trojan and keep the conversation going.
