After three years of discussion between faculty and local activists, Ohio University is drawing closer to offering a “cultural competency” course for students by examining other course models.
Interim Executive Vice President and Provost David Descutner began previously talking about a forming group of administrative and senate leaders to evaluate course models. Now, he and Faculty Senate Chair Joe McLaughlin are moving forward by forming a group to develop a course that is about "cultural intelligence," Descutner said.
Descutner added that faculty will decide what the course looks like. OU President Duane Nellis said diversity and inclusion are important.
“Things like diversity and inclusion, that’s something we want to be a national leader in,” Nellis said. “We have to create a welcoming environment … no matter where they’re from.”
Faculty Senate’s executive committee has begun working to determine what the course might look like by considering student needs and examining models. One model is a course at Carnegie Mellon University, which Faculty Senate Secretary Robin Muhammad suggested, Descutner said. Faculty Senate met informally with the other four senate bodies last semester to create the Diversity and Inclusion Task Force.
When McLaughlin went to a Student Senate meeting in September, he talked about a collaboration between the two senates.
That mode of shared governance would begin a process to amend university curriculums and move the proposed addition of cultural competency classes forward, according to a previous Post report.
“However it unfolds will be in the hands of the faculty, but it really is about cultural intelligence and ... it’s about adaptability, it’s about being able to meet others with sensitivity and also understand cultural differences in a much broader sense than something I might call competency,” Descutner said at Faculty Senate’s October meeting.
The senates and administrators are developing the proposed courses to prepare students for cultural differences, Descutner said at the Board of Trustees meeting on Oct. 20.
“I think it’s a good idea. If kids are very interested in that then they should be able to take that class and the university should offer it,” Mitch Garfield, a sophomore studying International business, said. “I don’t know if I would make it a tier one requirement but I would highly recommend it.”
Vice President of Student Affairs and interim Chief Diversity Officer Jason Pina gave a presentation updating the Board of Trustees about diversity and inclusion at their October meeting. He voiced concern about certain departments in the division of student affairs being understaffed.
“I have two people — less than five — who have in their job description language around diversity,” Pina said at the Board of Trustees meeting on Oct. 20. “That’s embarrassing.”
