This year, issues of the cultural diversity course requirements have been discussed among faculty, students and administration.

Kathleen Bower, chair of the council on academic affairs, said the discussions have not come to a conclusion.

Because this is an ongoing issue, CAA decided to create an Ad Hoc Committee to the board to investigate the issue.

“We have a sub-committee to fulfill and investigate the request of the students,” Bower said. “To do diligently to find out if there is a problem and what we should do is their job.”

Last semester, Student Government brought to the CAA discussions of increasing the cultural diversity class requirement to graduate.

Bowers said if this is passed, current students would be grandfathered in and the requirement would not go into effect until three or four years from the last graduating class.

The Ad Hoc Committee was created this semester and plans to meet more in November.

“We know we won’t find answers, we just want data and information,” Bowers said. “We need information to see if there is really a problem and we need facts to make a decision.”

The current requirement is three credits of general education courses and students are asking to double that requirement.

Bower said the Ad Hoc Committee should have gathered information and data by December and will conduct meetings about the facts next semester.

Mikki Meadows, chair of the Ad Hoc Committee, said the committee is looking to discuss three issues that include what the definition of cultural diversity is, whether or not requirements should be increased, and if students are getting a diverse experience outside the classroom.

“Cultural awareness is always important and clearly there are people who identify the need to look at it more carefully,” Meadows said. “We live in a predominately white geographical area with a predominately white campus and many people can not identify the problem.”

She said just because some people do not have to deal with issues does not mean the issues cannot be looked into.

“It’s harder in campuses where there is not much diverse students,” Meadows said.

The Ad Hoc Committee is looking for recommendations to present to the CAA board. The committee is made up of eight people, including deans, professors and one student.

Alison Kostelich, student and Ad Hoc Committee member, said she believes the increase is vital to ensure that Eastern graduates are aware of cultural diversity.

“First, we would bring ourselves up to the same level and other peer institutions that we compare ourselves against, who already have a requirement larger than three hours,” Kostelich said. “Second, it would set EIU apart from other Illinois schools who currently only have a three hour requirement, the minimum required by the state.”

She believes this would aid Eastern’s goal of becoming a top choice and first class institution.

For Kostelich, cultural awareness is something that some people will never experience until they come to college.

Mark Jensen, junior psychology major, believes this requirement will not help anything on campus.

“It would be a nice thing to do, but its not a truly diverse campus,” Jensen said. “It might make things worse by offending people and making unnecessary work for people who do not want to take it.”

Brittni Garcia can be reached at 581-7944 or at bgarcia@eiu.edu.