SOCIAL  DIVERSITY  IN  THE  GEOGRAPHY  CURRICULUM
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At the UW:
For this portion, I am to categorize and distinguish between those aspects of UW life that best approach diversity issues.

Essentially, I feel that any portion of life that leads to unity and acceptance is the best aspect of diversity-related life.  Unfortunately, almost no component of university life includes this in a formal setting.  Informally, however, almost every aspect of university life includes the basic building blocks of acceptance training.  In classes, simply the opportunity to listen to and work with people from diverse backgrounds and experiences is a form of diversity training.  The same can be said of non-curricular life, but to a lesser extent.  For instance, during a visit to the HUB one probably encounters a good cross-section of ethnic representation at the U, but almost no opportunity to “work” with anyone.  Classrooms, on the other hand, are places full of captive audiences, and places where people meet regularly with the intention of meaningful interaction.  I am not, however, suggesting that visits to the HUB be supplemented with on-site instant diversity training.  Classroom experiences, though, CAN be supplemented with such training.  In my opinion, the best way America can achieve tolerance is by eliminating the barbs of blame, taking individual personal responsibility for change, and creating close association, fellowship and friendship among diverse peoples.

My best and only suggestion right now toward this seemingly impossible goal is to provide (a) major-required (that is, if you’re a major, you take the class) ‘diversity’ class(es) in which discussions of diversity and diversity issues take place.  I believe it is problematic to try and force such discussion within the realm of the major itself.  In other words, I do not think such a class should discuss diversity in terms of geography.  It is not such a stretch of the imagination to believe that the goal of college is a well-rounded, social education.  It should not, then, but impossible to discuss diversity within a discipline without formally involving the discipline.  These classes, then, would be geared toward fostering close association, fellowship and friendship among different people.  However, since the be-all, end-all of public school is funding, this class must probably include geography and in fact be geared toward it.  In such a case, interviewing students and instructors about diversity issues in geography (via the question we’ve been asking alumni) would provide an excellent way to identify the subject of the class(es).