Amidst rumors of several ethnic studies courses being removed from the Core Curriculum, Loyola's chapter of theNAACP organized a town hall forum to let students and faculty air their concerns and seek answers about the decision from a university official.
NAACP President Dana Williamson organized the Feb. 21 event. She said she wanted to give students the chance to seek clarification about Core changes slated to start Fall 2012 that will impact ethnic studies courses.
She pointed to the controversial ethnic studies ban in place in Arizona to stress the importance of students speaking out in defense of ethnic studies— and while Williamson emphasized that she was not "saying that Loyola is going in that direction," students should take a proactive approach to preserving diversity in the classroom.
"It's not an attack; its not anything like that. It's just a call for transparency," said Williamson, a 22-year-old political science major. "I think that it's up to Loyola administrators and faculty that are in charge to let us know what's going on because its not fair for them to keep us in the dark for courses that we are ultimately paying for and have to take."
The revised Core will omit Intro to the Qur'an, Religion in America, World Religions and Buddhism. African American Religious Experience will be swapped out and replaced in the core by a new, broader course called Intro to Black World Religions.
Anthony Cardoza, Ph.D., director of the University Core Curriculum, attended the event to answer questions about the decisions made by the Core Curriculum Committee, which he heads. The forum was tense at times, and a lot of students' anger was directed toward Cardoza, who did his best to explain the rationale behind the changes.
Cardoza stressed that the university is expanding diversity in the historical knowledge category by adding both a survey to African American History and a survey to Latin American History.
He explained that the changes to the Core are in line with Loyola's strategic plan, which seeks in part to, make the Core more coherent and provide "a breadth of learning foundational for undergraduate education in the Jesuit tradition." Measures aimed at accomplishing this include reducing courses in each knowledge area, making it so that courses only count for one knowledge area, creating foundational freshman level courses and allowing for the sequencing of courses in areas where two courses are required.
"The fact that the courses do not get core credit does not mean they can't be offered," said Cardoza.
"They can still be offered, and you can take those courses, and in fact if you believe in those courses then it's your responsibility. These courses will survive if enough students decide to take them," he said.
Cardoza emphasized in an e-mail sent to the Phoenix after the forum that under the current Core, the Theology Department has more than 30 courses, which he said is far more than any other department, thus explaining why so many courses had to be cut from this knowledge area.
The director of the Black World Studies program Gerald Steenken Ph. D. said that this puts his department at risk because student enrollment is already low, and taking courses from the Core makes the program even less visible.
"We're pointing out that the decisions that they're making appear to be made without them taking into consideration the impact their decisions will have on bws [black world studies]," he said.
He added that he was encouraged by Cardoza's willingness to engage in dialogue and hopes that the discussion can continue in a constructive way.
The director of Islamic Studies, professor Marcia Hermanson Ph. D. suggested several alternatives that the university should consider to appease students and faculty. These recommendations included restoring some courses outright and allowing topics or wildcard sections that specify broad courses.
Professor John Pincince, Ph.D. and director of the Asian Studies Program, proposed "solutions to avoid panels like this in the future."
Pincince added that there needs to be more participatory framework for decision making when it comes to the Core, suggesting that students should have more power in the process.