The UCSD history department has added a new course — HITO 155: Race, Sports and Inequality in the 20th Century — to its spring curriculum. Although the department initially claimed that the course fulfills UCSD’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Requirement for graduation, it is still pending approval, and students currently enrolled will not receive the DEI fulfillment for Spring Quarter 2014.
Originally, the history department sent out an email on Tuesday, April 2 to all UCSD students promoting the new course and stated that it fulfills UCSD’s DEI requirement. However, this was a miscommunication between the faculty and staff, as the faculty did not approve the course for the DEI requirement yet.
The history department notified students enrolled in the course of this change on Friday, April 4. However, students who are not enrolled were not informed.
Currently, the Educational Policy Committee is reviewing the course and deciding on whether or not it fulfills the DEI requirement. The committee expects the decision to be finalized in May or June of 2014.
The students currently taking HITO 155 will not be able to fulfill the DEI requirement this quarter with this class. However, if EPC later approves the course for DEI fulfillment, students will receive the credit retroactively.
UCSD history professors Daniel Widener and Robert S. Edelman are instructing the class this quarter with an emphasis on race and inequality within the sports industry in the 20th century.
According to the history department’s email, the course will cover the “patterns of exclusion and participation” with a focus on African Americans, Latinos and Native Americans. In addition, the latter part of the course will integrate a global perspective analyzing racial inequality and address the “multibillion dollar world of American sports [that] is shaped fundamentally by racial and ethnic matters.”
Undergraduate Student Affairs Coordinator Maggie Tilley worked closely with the history department to promote the new course.
“I think it will actually draw in more students to the history major because [the course includes] race, sport and inequality,” Tilley said. “I think a lot of students on campus are interested in sports [which would] draw in athletes and attract more students.”
The class runs on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9:30 a.m. to 10:50 a.m. at Sequoyah Lecture Hall 148.
