An upcoming roundtable dinner will give students and staff an opportunity to provide feedback on the mandatory ethnic studies requirement as part of a student government campaign to reform the current structure.
The event, organized in part by the Associated Students of Madison Diversity Committee, is planned for Feb. 18 and marks the next step in a process to apply large-scale changes to the mandatory ethnic studies requirement.
According to the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s website, all students are required to take an approved class of three or more credits discussing marginalized racial and ethnic groups in the U.S. since the policy was adopted as a general education requirement in 2003.
The roundtable will include a presentation on the history of the requirement, an open-mic portion where attendees will be asked to share experiences with classes and make suggestions, and smaller discussions led by ASM Diversity Committee members. Attendees will also be provided note cards on which they can leave comments about their class experiences.
Suggestions from the roundtable will be forwarded to the Student Ad Hoc Committee and Campus Diversity Plan Ad Hoc Committee to be incorporated in the new campus Diversity Plan due for release in April.
At a meeting Monday, committee members said it would be vital that feedback from average students be considered in addition to hearing from current instructors of Ethnic Studies courses.
“Everybody has to take the class before they graduate,” ASM Student Council Rep. Niko Magallon said “It will affect everyone’s educational experience.”
ASM Diversity Committee Chair Mia Akers said preliminary ideas include expanding the breadth of classes to incorporate facets of personal identity beyond race and ethnicity, such as sexual orientation.
The committee would also like the university to mandate the class be taken in students’ first two years of school, which would allow students to apply knowledge from the class to their educational experience.
Akers said she wants the revamped requirement to make the classes a “game-changer” for students, providing them with greater insight into their identities.
“I hope that it’s something that challenges students,” Akers said. “They’ll look back on college and say ‘wow that really changed my perspective on things.’”
