Boise State advances curriculum diversity

BOISE– Walk across the Boise State University campus, and the diversity you’re most likely to see is a range of ages: white and young, white and middle-age, white and senior.

But Boise State has taken notice, announcing that all new students must take a diversity-focused class as part of their required coursework.

“American students, particularly Idaho students, tend to be monocultural and need to learn about other societies and other languages,” said BSU anthropology professor Bob McCarl. “The whole state suffers from a homogeneity that is not typical of even West Coast states or the rest of the globe.”

Roughly 82 percent of Boise State students are white, said Frank Zang, the school’s spokesman. Seven percent did not report their ethnicity, while 5.7 percent are Hispanic and 2.8 percent are Asian-American. Roughly 1.3 percent are black and 1 percent are American Indian.

The school does show more diversity than Idaho’s population of 1.3 million, which is 91 percent white. Nearly 8 percent of Idaho residents are Hispanic, while black and Asian residents each make up less than 1 percent of the population. Roughly 1.5 percent are American Indian or Alaska Natives.

Instead of requiring a separate diversity class that would add to the course load, dozens of current classes have been revamped to add more multiculturalism, McCarl said.

English professors may focus on black literature, while political science professors will discuss contemporary political ideologies – such as the way different cultures deal with truth and justice matters.

Even some science classes are on the list. Students taking botany will now consider the ways different societies have historically relied on different foods, and which groups controlled the production of those foods.

For example, students will consider the changes wrought by replacing crops used for subsistence, such as corn in some parts of South America, with crops more economically desirable by other countries, such as bananas.

“So, they’re not just looking at plants from a biological perspective, but from within a global framework of social and economic change,” McCarl said.

The requirements will go into effect for freshmen this fall.

Latoya Richardson, who started attending BSU part-time in 1997, said she was often the only black student in her science classes. By the time she graduated with a biology degree in 2003, diversity at the school had dramatically increased, Richardson said.

Requiring the cultural awareness classes is a positive step, she said.

“I think it allows them to see a different kind of life – minority students don’t have the advantages that Caucasian students have,” Richardson said. “A lot of people, when they think of minorities in general, they think of people who are uneducated or people who are up to no good. So it will open up their eyes to see that minority students do have dreams and goals and sometimes it is a little bit harder for us to achieve those goals, but we try anyway.”

BSU Provost Sona Andrews acknowledged that the school has fewer minority students and faculty members than she’d like but said the new class requirement shows Boise State is committed to diversity.

“By exposing our students to these kinds of classes, we hope we are making them more accepting of people who are different from them.”