Though it has been discussed for an entire year, the Committee on Curricula will most likely not propose any changes this year to the one credit World Civilizations requirement, according to committee members. The decision comes in the wake of student and faculty input and a suggestion to add a diversity focus to the requirement.
Discussion about the effectiveness of the requirement stemmed from a faculty meeting last April on the foundation and distribution requirements. Many professors commented that the World Civilizations requirement is too broad and easily can be filled with courses that do not give students an in-depth look at other cultures.
But after gathering opinions throughout the year, the Committee on Curricula determined that the current requirement is adequate, according to Steven Hirsch, who co-chairs the Committee on the World Civilizations Requirement.
During this year's discussions, a proposal to add a diversity option to the World Civilizations requirement was put forth by Tufts Community Union (TCU) Vice-President Eric Greenberg. "There's been a demand for [the diversity option] for the last couple of years," Greenberg said. "Especially with the hate crimes that occurred on campus this year... we need to put it into the curriculum."
Supporters of incorporating a diversity option to the World Civilization requirement say it would expose students to other cultures without adding another requirement for liberal arts students.
While the Committee on Curricula believes that taking a diversity class would benefit students, most members say the world civilizations requirement is the correct place for this option. The committee "did not want to make an alternative to the World Civ. requirement," Hirsch said. "The committee is not finished, but [some members] do not feel that World Civ. and diversity are the same thing."
Instead, committee discussion is focusing on how to use the frame of the foundation requirements so that both the World Civilizations and language requirements give students the intended global perspective. "The committee is considering the language about the purpose of the requirement. It's looking at the way the requirement is geographically and culturally important," Hirsch said.
Some faculty members, such as Associate Professor of History Jeanne Penvenne, say the requirement is fine the way it is. Though Penvenne sat on the committee this semester, Penvenne missed most of the discussion while on sabbatical the previous year. Back at Tufts, she is telling her colleagues that there is no need for change.
"My New Englander component says 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it', and my African historian component says, 'if you put a lightening rod up, evil intentions will quickly flock to it,'" she said. "Both of those components say leave the World Civ. requirement right where it is."
To other faculty members, the requirement does not seem useful. "In the years since the World Civ. requirement was originally introduced, it has been so watered down as to make it practically meaningless," said Steve Marrone, a history professor. "It's easy to imagine that in many cases students satisfy the technical obligations for World Civ. without learning much about either the diversity of the world's cultures or any specific non-European, non-USA culture in particular."
But Hirsch maintains that the requirement is valuable and flexible and does not burden students. "Students, during their four years, should be exposed to a cultural tradition outside their own cultural tradition," he said. He did say, however, that the purpose of the language requirement should be more clearly elucidated.
If the student-faculty committee decides to write a proposal, it will present its findings to the Liberal Arts and Jackson faculty meeting on May 7.
Implementing any change in Tufts' requirement structure has not been an easy task, according to Greenberg. "A race and diversity requirement concerns political issues because of the subject matter," he said. "The faculty, no matter what you do, whenever you play around with classes, they get worried that it'll take away from their classes somehow."
