Portland State University Magazine Fall 1991

The University already fulfilled the first step by offering Black Studies (since 1969) , Women 's Studies (1976) and scores of classes examin– ing diverse cultures, but Millner says it needed to do a more complete job. "The University does it now sporadically. It does it if the student is especially energetic and interested in pursuing this kind of information . It is our responsibility to make that hap– pen more systematically and to make ii: an easier process for students to come into contact with this informa– tion," he says. Few will argue the virtues of teach– ing a multicultural po int of view, but the issue runs deeper than it appears on the surface. Behind this requirement for "exposure" is a politica l wave sweep– ing college campuses throughout the nation , a kind of backlash aga inst Western "white male" culture by groups who feel they have been oppressed, either by academia or society or history or all three. It was a particularly heated top ic at Stanfo rd , whose undergraduate curriculum traditionally foc used on Western history, literature, and philosophy. In 1988, that core curriculum came under intense fire from students who, in the words of Dinesh D'Souza, author of Illiberal Education, shared "a conviction that Western culture is implacably hostile to blacks and other ethnic minorities, women and homosexuals." The students chanted "Hey hey, ho ho, Western culture's got to go," and eventually Stanford abolished the Western Culture requirement in favor of a new curriculum ca lled Culture, Ideas and Values, stress ing works on race and gender issues by Third World authors, minority-group mem– bers, and women. Writes D'Souza, "In practice this meant that texts such as Plato's Republic and Machiave lli's Prince would have to make way for such works as I, Rigoberta Menchu, the politica l odyssey of a G uatemalan peasant woman who discovers feminism and soc ialism..." D'Souza goes on to say that core curricula at such places as Columbia University and the University of Chicago are now under attack in the aftermath of the changes at Stanford . The University of Wisconsin now requires ethnic-studies courses even though there is no requirement to study Western culture or even American history-which is now true at Portland State. Opponents of diversity require– ments argue that those who advocate them will not be satisfied until there is a corresponding exclusion of Western, white male viewpoints. In an opinion piece appearing in the July 31 edition of PSU's student news– paper, the Vanguard, staff writer Paul Weber wrote, "Diversity, in modern usage, is a buzzword that has almost the oppos ite meaning of its usage in standard English . Diversity, to many advocates of spec ial-group rights, means the teaching of their particular point of view. They want diversity so long as it is one-sided. They wan t diversity so long as it is not diverse." Weber is not alone. Some PSU faculty, including English professor Michael Hollister, fear that the re– quirement seeks to turn the Univer– sity into a reform school for the cultura lly and ethnica lly "unen– lightened" and will stifle open debate about matters of sex and race. They say that unless professors teach their subj ect with the "politically correct" bent-adopting specific beliefs about feminism and racial minorities-they ould be dooming themselves to in– timidation or obscurity. Perhaps it could become politically incorrect to teach Huckleberry Finn because it uses the word "nigger." Perhaps no discussion of Shakespeare PSU ll