Fewer cultures will be studied in I required American Ethnic Heritage courses if SF State President ChiaWei Woo approves a proposal that was passed by the Academic Senate Tuesday.
Jake Perea, chair of the senate's AEH Committee, said the proposal will allow students in the courses to focus on specific ethnic groups and imues rather than receive a general overview of several groups.
"Instead of looking at Central America as compared to the situation in the United States," Pereri said, "a student would now learn, for instance, the El Salvadoran situation as compared to the Mexicanation as compared to the Mexican undocumented workers' situation in the United States.
"Since 1981, SF State has been the only California State University campus where students must take an AEH course to complete General Education requirements.
But Perea, also an associate professor in the School of Ethnic Studies, said students today are more career-oriented and think studying ethnic groups is not necessary to reach their goals.
"The fact is that it is very important for all students to be able to become involved with the kinds of things that are going on in ethnic studies," said Perea.
Bernice Biggs, chair of SF State's Academic Senate, said the university has suggested to CSU's Statewide Academic Senate that it adopt the AEH requirement for all CSU campuses.
The schools of Behavioral and Social Sciences, Ethnic Studies and Humanities offer a total of 19 courses that fulfill the requirement.
If the revisions are approved by Woo, new GE Segment 11 classes might be added and those that now meet the requirement will be restructured to comply with the revisions.
Woo is expected to reach a decision by May 20.
[ back to Golden Gater Online May 2, 1986 ]
[ back to top ]