U.S.: Difference, Inequality and Agency and Global Perspectives Requirement (formerly the Multicultural Requirement)

The University Senate passed legislation during AY 2017-18 that makes changes to the multicultural requirements.  While these changes are not effective until Fall 2019, any new course proposals submitted during AY 2018-19 will need to meet the new requirements to be approved by the UOCC. Existing courses approved in these categories will be grandfathered in until they are resubmitted for review (for review and approval process see: https://provost.uoregon.edu/core-education-course-approval-process and for assistance in working through this process, see templates: https://provost.uoregon.edu/files/core_ed_courses_backward_design_templates.docx).  Over the next 3 years, all existing courses that wish to remain in the US: Difference, Inequality and Agency or Global Perspectives areas will need to be resubmitted for consideration.  A process and timeline is under development for existing courses in these categories. A summary of the changes follows.

The Senate replaced the existing Multicultural Requirement with 2 new requirements.  Each student will be required to take 1 course in the US: Difference, Inequality and Agency category, and 1 course in the Global Perspectives category.

1. US: Difference, Inequality and Agency (US)

These courses will develop students’ analytical and reflective capacities to help them understand and ethically engage with the ongoing (cultural, economic, political, social, etc.) power imbalances that have shaped and continue to shape the United States. This engagement may also include the relation of the United States to other regions of the world. Each course will include scholarship, cultural production, perspectives, and voices from members of communities historically marginalized by these legacies of inequality.

Each course will undertake one or more of the following:

  • Teach respectful listening and tools for ethical dialogue in order to expand students’ abilities to practice civil conversation and engage with deeply felt or controversial issues.
  • Facilitate student reflection on their own multiple social identifications and on how those identifications are formed and located in relation to power.

Each course will address:

  • Intersecting aspects of identity such as race, gender, sexuality, socioeconomic status, indigeneity, national origin, religion, or ability.
  • The uses of power to classify, rank, and marginalize on the basis of these aspects of identity, as well as considerations of agency on the part of marginalized groups.
  • Historical structures, contemporary structures, forms of knowledge, cultural practices, or ideologies that perpetuate or change the distribution of power in society.

 2. Global Perspectives (GP)

These courses will foster student encounter with and critical reflection upon cultures, identities, and ways of being in global contexts. Each course will include substantial scholarship, cultural production, perspectives, and voices from members of communities under study, as sources permit.

Each course will undertake one or more of the following:

  • Teach respectful listening and civil conversation as critical tools for collective student engagement with topics that are controversial today;
  • Provide critical vocabulary and concepts allowing students to engage and discuss topics with which students may be unfamiliar.

Each course will engage with one of more of the following:

  • Texts, literature, art, testimonies, practices, or other cultural products that reflect systems of meaning or beliefs beyond the US context;
  • Power relations involving different nations, peoples and identity groups, or world regions;
  • Consideration of hierarchy, marginality or discrimination based on race, ethnicity, gender, religion, sexual orientation, nationality, or ability (or some combination).
Study Abroad for Global Perspectives Requirement
Students who participate in University of Oregon sponsored study abroad programs can fulfill the Global Perspectives category.
The UO Foreign Study Programs Committee in collaboration with Study Abroad staff will identify which UO-sponsored programs will meet the Global Perspectives requirement, based on the following criteria:
  • Students must be enrolled full-time and maintain satisfactory academic progress throughout their academic programs abroad.
  • Approved study abroad programs must be a minimum of five weeks in length. If the program is between five and nine weeks in duration, it must have substantial cultural immersion, and meet at least two of the following three criteria:
    • Include a home stay or immersion living experience
    • Offer a language-intensive and/or culturally immersive curriculumProvide an internship, service learning, or integrated work or volunteer program
    • Programs of ten weeks or longer will automatically satisfy the Global Perspectives requirement
A student who participates in a program that does not fit any of the criteria above has the option to petition the Academic Requirements Committee under their usual guidelines.