Skip to content
ADVERTISEMENT
Sign In
  • Sections
    • News
    • Advice
    • The Review
  • Topics
    • Data
    • Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
    • Finance & Operations
    • International
    • Leadership & Governance
    • Teaching & Learning
    • Scholarship & Research
    • Student Success
    • Technology
    • Transitions
    • The Workplace
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Special Issues
    • Podcast: College Matters from The Chronicle
  • Newsletters
  • Virtual Events
  • Ask Chron
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Professional Development
    • Career Resources
    • Virtual Career Fair
  • More
  • Sections
    • News
    • Advice
    • The Review
  • Topics
    • Data
    • Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
    • Finance & Operations
    • International
    • Leadership & Governance
    • Teaching & Learning
    • Scholarship & Research
    • Student Success
    • Technology
    • Transitions
    • The Workplace
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Special Issues
    • Podcast: College Matters from The Chronicle
  • Newsletters
  • Virtual Events
  • Ask Chron
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Professional Development
    • Career Resources
    • Virtual Career Fair
    Upcoming Events:
    A Culture of Cybersecurity
    Opportunities in the Hard Sciences
    Career Preparation
Sign In
Faculty

What Colleges Can Do to Diversify Their Curricula

By Corinne Ruff May 27, 2016
Student protesters at Seattle U. are seeking the resignation of a dean and, like their peers at other colleges and universities, the diversification of curricula.
Student protesters at Seattle U. are seeking the resignation of a dean and, like their peers at other colleges and universities, the diversification of curricula.Marcus Harrison Green

For the last two weeks, a small group of students at Seattle University has held a sit-in outside the office of the dean of the institution’s Matteo Ricci College. Like many student protesters across the country in the past year, they’re demanding a resignation — of the small college’s dean, Jodi O. Kelly.

To continue reading for FREE, please sign in.

Sign In

Or subscribe now to read with unlimited access for as low as $10/month.

Don’t have an account? Sign up now.

A free account provides you access to a limited number of free articles each month, plus newsletters, job postings, salary data, and exclusive store discounts.

Sign Up

Student protesters at Seattle U. are seeking the resignation of a dean and, like their peers at other colleges and universities, the diversification of curricula.
Student protesters at Seattle U. are seeking the resignation of a dean and, like their peers at other colleges and universities, the diversification of curricula.Marcus Harrison Green

For the last two weeks, a small group of students at Seattle University has held a sit-in outside the office of the dean of the institution’s Matteo Ricci College. Like many student protesters across the country in the past year, they’re demanding a resignation — of the small college’s dean, Jodi O. Kelly.

Also like other student groups, many of their demands center on issues of diversity — in short, fewer “dead white dudes” in the college’s curriculum, one protester told The Seattle Times. Some of the groups have called for specific diversity requirements for undergraduate curricula. Other demands are more open-ended, seeking curricula in all disciplines that better address modern inequalities.

Many college leaders are beginning to recognize the need to take action. A survey this year by the American Council on Education revealed that one in five college presidents were overseeing curricular changes based on students’ demands for diversity.

As colleges and universities take on those concerns, many — including Seattle — are forming committees to rethink the role diversity should play in what they teach. What does that process look like?

It comes in many layers, says Paul C. Gorski, an associate professor in the School of Integrative Studies at George Mason University, in Virginia. Administrators walk a fine line when it comes to rewarding curricular changes without stepping on the toes of faculty members who choose courses and syllabi.

When approaching the task of diversifying a curriculum, Mr. Gorski says, one question looms large: “Do the courses in this general curriculum reflect the present reality and our students?”

If the answer is no — and a college lacks courses that dive into issues of racism, homophobia, or sexism — it may expose another layer: a lack of diversity in faculty expertise.

That problem can overlap with another common student demand: hiring more faculty members from marginalized backgrounds who could offer diverse perspectives. The problem, Mr. Gorski says, is that those faculty members are often brought into alienating environments.

“One of the worst things an institution can do is have a requirement and hire part-time faculty to teach them because what happens is it marginalizes the requirement and students pick this up right away,” says Mitchell L. Chang, a professor of education and Asian-American studies at the University of California at Los Angeles.

ADVERTISEMENT

An effort to diversify a curriculum needs to be faculty-driven, Mr. Gorski says. Even in a single classroom, professors can ask themselves: “Is it so bad to take out one of the Shakespeare writings and put in Maya Angelou or James Baldwin?”

But that can be a problem if the faculty doesn’t have or hasn’t been provided with the expertise to teach on those topics.

Mr. Chang, who has studied the effectiveness of diversity courses in reducing student bias, says that ideally “diversity literacy” would be sprinkled across all disciplines. But getting to that point is a huge undertaking for any institution.

‘Voluntary Wouldn’t Work’

Since the early 1990s, when a student protested that the curriculum lacked diversity, Northern Illinois University has convened a Committee on Multicultural Curriculum Transformation.

ADVERTISEMENT

Each summer for more than two decades, the committee has helped more than 220 faculty members make their curricula more inclusive through workshops. But volunteers have steadily dwindled, and nearly half of those professors have since retired or left the university. “Voluntary wouldn’t work anymore,” says Kristen Meyers, a former chair of the committee and director of the women’s-studies program. “It doesn’t transform the culture or department.”

Vernese E. Edghill-Walden, the university’s chief diversity officer and senior associate vice president for academic diversity, says the voluntary program will end as the committee shifts to focus on a new human-diversity requirement for students.

The committee will develop criteria for the courses this summer and put in place the requirement in the fall of 2017.

Ms. Edghill-Walden says courses that might qualify include a women’s-studies class on gender in the workplace or a class on racism in America.

ADVERTISEMENT

Similar demands sprouted in 2015 at Colorado College, which has created a curriculum executive committee. “We are trying to keep up with societal changes,” says Sandra L. Wong, dean of the college and dean of the faculty. “We are trying to look into the future.”

For the last year, the committee has held forums to gather how students view diversity and what they want to learn in the classroom. Ms. Wong says the demand is clear for critical-perspective courses on global cultures and inequality.

The group, made up of more than a dozen faculty members, students, and administrators, will not meet over the summer but will pick up the effort in the fall, with a goal of carrying out changes in 2016-17. But, Ms. Wong cautions, she can provide only pressure and incentives.

“Faculty have independent authorship of their own syllabi, and just stimulating awareness and consciousness around this is an important point,” she says, adding that many faculty members may decide to diversify their syllabi over the summer.

ADVERTISEMENT

As administrators convene such curriculum committees, Mr. Chang cautions against too much top-down action.

“You don’t want this kind of diversity policing,” he says. “It seems to undermine the whole effort.” People on committees should focus on developing a diversity strategy for curricula, he says.

The key question, Mr. Chang says, is what qualities do universities want their graduates to have? “If one of them is to prepare them to thrive in a diverse democracy,” he says, “I imagine this is one of many things they would want to invest in.”

Shaun R. Harper, a professor in the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania and executive director of its Center for the Study of Race and Equity in Education, has spoken to faculty members at Brown, Georgetown, and other universities about how to start conversations on diversifying their curricula. One thing to stress, he says, is moving the talk beyond blaming faculty resistance — a product of “the inexperience and lack of consciousness and competence to teach about these issues and knowing what to assign.”

ADVERTISEMENT

He recommends conducting external reviews of course syllabi to gain feedback on how course content could be made more culturally relevant.

Colleges and universities should use a “both/and approach,” which incorporates diversity into specific courses as well as the curriculum as a whole, Mr. Harper says. Simply adding a diversity requirement, he says, isn’t enough.

A version of this article appeared in the June 10, 2016, issue.
We welcome your thoughts and questions about this article. Please email the editors or submit a letter for publication.
Tags
Teaching & Learning
Share
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Email
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

Related Content

Diversity Courses Are in High Demand. Can They Make a Difference?
Diversifying a Discipline
When Pursuing Diversity, Victory Is Hard to Define
Adding Diversity to Curricula, Starting in the Classrooms

More News

Harvard University
'Deeply Unsettling'
Harvard’s Battle With Trump Escalates as Research Money Is Suddenly Canceled
Photo-based illustration of a hand and a magnifying glass focusing on a scene from Western Carolina Universiy
Equal Opportunity
The Trump Administration Widens Its Scrutiny of Colleges, With Help From the Internet
Santa J. Ono, president of the University of Michigan, watches a basketball game on the campus in November 2022.
'He Is a Chameleon'
At U. of Michigan, Frustrations Grew Over a President Who Couldn’t Be Pinned Down
Photo-based illustration of University of Michigan's president Jeremy Santa Ono emerging from a red shape of Florida
Leadership
A Major College-President Transition Is Defined by an About-Face on DEI

From The Review

Illustration showing a valedictorian speaker who's tassel is a vintage microphone
The Review | Opinion
A Graduation Speaker Gets Canceled
By Corey Robin
Illustration showing a stack of coins and a university building falling over
The Review | Opinion
Here’s What Congress’s Endowment-Tax Plan Might Cost Your College
By Phillip Levine
Photo-based illustration of a college building under an upside down baby crib
The Review | Opinion
Colleges Must Stop Infantilizing Everyone
By Gregory Conti

Upcoming Events

Ascendium_06-10-25_Plain.png
Views on College and Alternative Pathways
Coursera_06-17-25_Plain.png
AI and Microcredentials
  • Explore Content
    • Latest News
    • Newsletters
    • Letters
    • Free Reports and Guides
    • Professional Development
    • Virtual Events
    • Chronicle Store
    • Chronicle Intelligence
    • Jobs in Higher Education
    • Post a Job
  • Know The Chronicle
    • About Us
    • Vision, Mission, Values
    • DEI at The Chronicle
    • Write for Us
    • Work at The Chronicle
    • Our Reporting Process
    • Advertise With Us
    • Brand Studio
    • Accessibility Statement
  • Account and Access
    • Manage Your Account
    • Manage Newsletters
    • Individual Subscriptions
    • Group and Institutional Access
    • Subscription & Account FAQ
  • Get Support
    • Contact Us
    • Reprints & Permissions
    • User Agreement
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • California Privacy Policy
    • Do Not Sell My Personal Information
1255 23rd Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20037
© 2025 The Chronicle of Higher Education
The Chronicle of Higher Education is academe’s most trusted resource for independent journalism, career development, and forward-looking intelligence. Our readers lead, teach, learn, and innovate with insights from The Chronicle.
Follow Us
  • twitter
  • instagram
  • youtube
  • facebook
  • linkedin