By Diana Castillo

Gustavo Licon, an assistant professor in Latin American Studies, teaches courses at Ithaca College that fall under the course category “diversity,” a vague term that has been thrown around higher education.

Students at Ithaca College are required to complete the Integrative Core Curriculum, also known as the ICC. At orientation, students are presented with different themes including Identities, Inquiries, Imagination and Innovation, Power and Justice, Mind, Body, and Spirit, The Quest for a Sustainable Future and A World of Systems. Throughout their four years, students then must take classes that fulfill each perspective, including diversity.  

“Diversity is the inclusion of historically marginalized and oppressed communities particularly those of Native American, African-American, Latino, and Asian descent,” said Licon.

Phuong Nguyen, an assistant professor for the Center of Race, Culture, and Ethnicity (CSCRE), similarly defined diversity as the “groups that have been historically underrepresented and marginalized from institutions of higher learning, like Ithaca College.”

Ithaca College has a its own definition. The colleges website states, “Diversity encompasses multiple dimensions, including but not limited to the social and political constructions of race, culture, nationality, ethnicity, religion, ideas, beliefs, geographic origin, class, sexual orientation and identities, gender, gender identities and expressions, disability, and age.”

These courses are meant to “give [students] another view of the world- through the eyes of those different than yourself.” It continues to say, “You’ll explore current and past injustices and see how those in power can shape public perception of people’s differences and how societies can adapt to or resist these definitions. You’ll learn how diversity enriches society, come to understand why groups may hold different views on issues, and open your mind to views beyond your own.”

This is supposed to be accomplished over the course of one semester, with one class.

Professors such as Licon and Patricia Rodriguez, an associate professor of Politics, who have taught at Ithaca College since the implementation of the ICC expressed their opinion on the

change of the number of diversity courses required by students.

“Initially, there was a two diversity course requirement and that was taken away after one year by faculty members that thought two was too many. And you could imagine it wasn’t one of the ALANA (African, Latino, Asian, Native American) faculty members” argued Licon.

Rodriguez highlighted the lack of space available within the limited diversity classes, which led to students not graduating on time.

She stated, “Suddenly, they just kind of went down to one because there weren’t enough classes for diversity and then people were having difficulties graduating.”

With no control over the number of required classes, professors face the workload of paperwork to establish their classes as diversity perspectives. If a professor believes their course falls under Ithaca College's definition of diversity, they must fill out a form, stating how the class fulfills the Student Learning Outcomes (SLO’s). The committee then reviews it and decides if the class can be designated under diversity.

While it’s to the professors advantage to have their classes fit under the ICC categories as students need the requirement and will sign up. Nguyen professed, “for our perspective generally, ICC is just extra work for us that we have to fill out more forms and get them updated.”

Regarding the students experience, many find the diversity courses to be ineffective. Students like Justina Bethune, first year Architecture Major, have complained about their diversity class within the ICC requirement. Last semester, she took The Concepts of Race, Culture, and Ethnicity with a professor who would devalue their experiences as a women of color.

“You don’t deal with this on the regular basis, so how do you know how I feel? How do you know how to properly describe systematic discrimination when you’ve never faced it?” said Bethune.

With the task of completing ICC paperwork and conducting their individual research projects, professors of color often take on the role as a mentors for students of color, like Bethune. There is a limited amount of professors of color on campus compared to students.

According to the Office of Analytics and Institutional Research, in the fall semester of 2016 there was 86 ALANA professors, which made up 11.6 percent of the faculty. There was a recorded amount of 627 white professors,which made up 84.3 percent of the faculty.