CHICO — During a time of racial reckoning, the California State University system, the largest public university system in the nation, is rethinking general education requirements.
Beginning in fall 2023, CSU students will be required to take a three-credit ethnic studies or social justice course to graduate.
“Our goal is for CSU students, from every major and in every workplace, to be leaders in creating a more just and equitable society,” said CSU Chancellor Timothy P. White in a press release. “This action, by the CSU and for the CSU, lifts Ethnic Studies to a place of prominence in our curriculum, connects it with the voices and perspectives of other historically oppressed groups, and advances the field by applying the lens of social justice. It will empower our students to meet this moment in our nation’s history, giving them the knowledge, broad perspectives and skills needed to solve society’s most pressing problems. And it will further strengthen the value of a CSU degree.”
The decision to add an ethnic studies or social justice course to the general education requirements was made on July 22.
“They’d be ill prepared to be in the world if they didn’t,” said Nandi Crosby-Jordan, a professor in the Chico State Multicultural and Gender Studies Department and the Sociology Department. “This is 2020.”
The tenured professor has taught in Chico since 1999. Her class topics include gender, race, sexuality, social class and more. She even created a class, The Prison Industrial Complex, where students unpack issues of social justice and inequality.
“Students can graduate from college and get masters degrees and PhDs without ever taking a course that can show them how to show up in the world in a way that’s more inclusive and productive in terms of a society moving forward, in terms of humanity being more progressive,” she said.
“This isn’t 1960, 1990 or even 2019. This is a different world. It’s a shame that students have to be 18, 19, 20 or 30 before the first time they’re even being taught what white privilege is or being taught to think critically about gender studies.”
Crosby-Jordan said her students have asked, “Why is it that I have to wait until college to even start learning about this stuff?”
Crosby-Jordan is bringing not only her students into national reckoning, but her colleagues as well.
During Go Summer Virtual Institute, a training to prepare faculty to teach virtually in the fall, she is mentoring faculty members about how to teach equity studies virtually.
“You don’t have to shift your whole curriculum, but you can use authors who come from marginalized communities,” she explained.
One way she has engaged her students is by having them make TikTok videos where they might make a cooking demonstration about a cultural food, or use a playlist that goes into relevant topics such as police brutality. TikTok is a social media platform used to create short videos.
Crosby-Jordan said she wants to see “a move away from tradition, a move toward more contemporary narratives.”
“I do believe it’s important to shift the curriculum,” she said.
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July 30, 2020 at 06:02PM
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Ethnic and social justice studies course becomes new requirement for CSU students - Chico Enterprise-Record
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