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California State U. Board Approves Ethnic-Studies Requirement That Dismays Ethnic-Studies Professors

California State U. Board Approves Ethnic-Studies Requirement That Dismays Ethnic-Studies Professors

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The Chronicle of Higher Education

Marc Parry

July 22, 2020

While California State trustees considered an ethnic-studies proposal, Assemblywoman Shirley Weber, a former Africana-studies chair at San Diego State U., urged passage of her bill that would impose a much stronger ethnic-studies requirement on Cal State students.

All undergraduates in the 23-campus California State University system will have to satisfy a new ethnic-studies and social-justice course requirement to graduate, under a controversial policy the system’s Board of Trustees adopted on Wednesday.

Administrators framed the shift, the first major change in the system’s general education requirements in more than 40 years, as part of its wide-ranging response to the national uprising against racism.

But even as the trustees cast their votes, they acknowledged that the policy’s future is uncertain. Ethnic-studies faculty leaders oppose what they view as a lax mandate. The curriculum change could soon be superseded by a proposed state law that would force the system to adopt a stricter ethnic-studies graduation requirement.

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