Diversity improvements are in the works at the Robert D. Clark Honors College, and over the course of the next few years the faculty hopes to see a more diversified student body and faculty, and even a more global curriculum.
The Honors College recently received a $12,000 grant from the Williams Council that will allow its faculty to develop and eventually implement a history curriculum focusing on the histories of a variety of cultures. The faculty will spend the next academic year researching and planning the revised curriculum.
In addition to revamping the curriculum, David Frank, associate professor of rhetoric and director of the Honors College, said he is determined to see diversity among the Honors College faculty and student body increase. He said focusing on these two groups while revising the history curriculum may be key to improving overall diversity.
“No one change will make the differences we seek,” he said. “Our intent is to embrace diversity and do so carefully.”
Frank said next fall’s freshman class appears more diverse than this year’s, and revising the history curriculum is one way to ensure a variety of students remain in the college.
Joseph Fracchia, an associate history professor in the Honors College, said selecting material for the revised classes will be a challenge because there is so much information to choose from. He said one part of the grant will fund a two-week seminar allowing University faculty to meet this summer to develop ideas for the future curriculum, including possible course topics, texts and materials.
“We are looking to develop a curriculum that has integrity and yet also can deal in depth with various cultures,” he said. “We have to organize it so we do justice to all cultures.”
Fracchia said improving diversity in the Honors College has been a concern of his for nearly a decade. For a long time, he was the sole history professor in the Honors College and revising the curriculum was too much for one person to do alone, he said. Now that there are two history professors and there is grant money, the faculty are more able to take action to improve diversity.
“This is something that’s overdue,” he said. “I’m excited it’s happening.”
Fracchia said students share his enthusiasm.
“Students regularly expressed concerns to me that the curriculum is too narrow, so many of them are now pleased,” he said.
Frank said the new curriculum will be ready to test in the 2002-2003 academic year. He also said the Honors College will begin a search for an additional history professor for next year. The department hopes to bring in someone who is an expert in a field outside Western history.
In addition to hiring new faculty, Frank said the Honors College will offer a handful of courses next year with topics ranging from global human rights to Latin American ethnicity. He said the college invited University professors outside the Honors College to teach in their areas of expertise.
Carlos Aguirre, an assistant history professor, will teach Race and Ethnicity in Modern Latin America to Honors College students next winter. He said he hopes to teach them how to appreciate the complexities of racial identities among Latin Americans and also dispel some of the typical stereotypes surrounding Latin Americans.