Last week, the Associated Students of the University of Washington (ASUW) Student Senate passed a resolution supporting a graduation requirement known as the "diversity requirement."

Similar to other credit requirements, such as Natural World (math and science) and Visual, Language and Performing Arts (art, music and foreign languages), the diversity requirement, according to a November 29 article in The Daily, would mandate students take two courses of two to five credits that focus on resolution goals:

The goals include analyzing at least one socially constructed identity, teaching how these identities intersect with life, and teaching students to think about inequality and activism. Also...exploring customs and traditions as they relate to power and oppression, exploring the historical precursors of power relations and investigating how contemporary society contributes to inequality.

Members of the local chapter of Young Americans for Liberty have been some of the most vocal critics of this requirement.

The Daily article quotes YAL member and ASUW senator James Hubert in saying the University of Washington should encourage diversity awareness, but "...the really valuable education about diversity [comes] not from classes but from the interaction with students from other races and other lifestyles...We should be encouraging people to go out and interact with others who are diverse rather than having them taught by a professor..."

Conservatives and libertarians on campus fear that the requirement, besides being ineffective, will also focus too heavily on skin-deep diversity. They argue that if universities want to truly be diverse, they need to stop focusing entirely on race and crack down on ideological discrimination.

Justin Clements, an officer with the UW YAL chapter, began his fight against the requirement last year. "If we can't stop the resolution from passing," he said, "we should at least have a voice for the minority most frequently dismissed. Intellectual diversity on-campus has been placed behind the University's desire to promote socio-economic causes. I propose we take action by offering a course on the fundamentals of liberty."

As a recent graduate of the University of Washington, I have learned more about different cultures in my three years studying in Seattle than I have in my entire lifetime.

But none of that came from a professor forcing me to understand. It came from football games with thousands of other people; it came from attending events held by student groups; and, most importantly, it came from talking to my classmates and roommates from different cities, states and countries.

If the school's motivation is to create comradery amongst a diverse student body and convey the sense that we are all different, but we are all Huskies, they have done a phenomenal job. If their motivation is instead to highlight differences between students and trivialize learning about others by creating a graduation checklist and a chore, the diversity requirement will certainly accomplish that goal.

Also posted on Campus Reform.