It is sad when the faculty of a major University doesn't "get it" -- that we live in a global world and diversity training is highly appropriate for their students.
If you asked any University of Missouri faculty to cite reasons for why they didn’t agree to require all students to take a diversity class, they could probably come up with a few. It is pretty obvious, however, that misinformation wasn’t one of them.
Some instructors have explained they simply don’t think a diversity requirement is necessary, according to Rubin, chairwoman of the MU Faculty Council, who told this to a Missouri reporter, after the requirement was voted down. Others thought it was a knee-jerk reaction to racially charged incidents on campus.
Some saw the proposal as too broad; others thought it was too narrow and violated academic freedom, reports Janese Silvey of the Columbia Daily Tribune.
Rubin told faculty council members there were “other reasons I’d rather not discuss in public," Silvey reports."And those reasons, [according to Rubin], highlight the need to require a diversity course."
In May, MU instructors were asked to approve a plan that would have required all students to take a diversity class as part of general education requirements. Existing courses already teaching diversity issues could have been deemed as “diversity-intensive” courses to meet the requirement — much like MU’s existing writing-intensive program.
But as Silvey reports, the proposal failed with 232 members voting against it and 210 voting for it.
"At the time, Rubin blamed the Faculty Council for not communicating the plan well enough to faculty at large."
Blaming misinformation hasn’t gone over well with those who voted, Nicole Monnier, a professor of Russian, told the Tribune reporter. "Faculty members don’t like being told they voted “no” by mistake," she said. “They voted ‘no’ for a reason.”
All was quiet before the election, with only a small number of faculty members publicly voicing concerns about the proposal. According to Silvey, this was probably because they didn’t feel comfortable speaking out against a diversity plan. Silvey repeorts she was told this on the side by some faculty members.
Before the election, there was "nothing but positive feedback," one faculty member said. But later, "they expressed fear about speaking against a diversity class."“It’s easy to vote in isolation,” that faculty member told Silvey.
Others said they felt Faculty Council proponents of the plan weren’t open to other ideas.
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Will this diversity training proposal come back to faculty for a vote next school year? Already several council members have warned against "rushing to put it up for a vote too soon."
One engineering professor and incoming chairman of the council suggests faculty "better explain that students need to understand diversity before entering a global workforce," Silvey reports.
But an associate professor of agricultural economics, questioned what happens if faculty were to vote against a diversity course a second time. “Are we going to keep coming back?” he asked. “Are we hellbent on getting a diversity requirement at this university?
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