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Challenge 5: Developing a Curriculum that Supports the Goals of Penn State’s New General Education Plan. Framework to Foster Diversity Homepage 1. What initiatives has your college taken in supporting multicultural curriculum efforts? CURRENT INITIATIVES ACADEMIC AFFAIRS The College regularly offer 27-30 DF or GI courses, each semester, and a wide variety of other courses include issues of diversity, multiculturalism, racism, and social change (See Appendix 3). Penn State Altoona was authorized to grant a Spanish minor, beginning in summer 2001. A faculty member developed a new course, HIST 110, Nature and History, which meets both GH and GI requirements. This course will be offered every other year at Penn State Altoona. A Women’s Studies minor is currently in the consultation and approval process, and we expect to begin offering the minor in summer 2002. Two faculty members received a FELT grant to develop a team-taught course on difference and diversity, scheduled for spring 2002. All Penn State Altoona 4-year business students (BSB students) have completed IB 303, and there is a proposal in front of the Senate to make IB 303 a GI course. Penn State Altoona has sent students to study in France (Marseilles) during each of the last 3 summers. We expect 5 French business students to arrive at Penn State Altoona as junior level students next fall and to remain for two years. They will receive degrees from Penn State and the CESEM, a French Institution at that time. We expect 5 additional French students to arrive each fall thereafter. [Also, French engineering students (Bethune) have spent summers at Penn State Altoona several times over the last 5 years.] Penn State Altoona has a relationship with the Chinese University of Mining Technology. To date, only one student has come to study at Penn State Altoona. STUDENT AFFAIRS Career Services offers a two credit elective course called “Career Decision Making”. Throughout the course, instructors and guest speakers discuss disability issues, multicultural issues, and study aboard opportunities within the College. Health and Wellness Center staff are available to faculty to provide-in-service, workshops, and curriculum materials on diversity as it relates to the heath of our students. 2. What research and teaching in your college has advanced the University’s diversity agenda? CURRENT INITIATIVES ACADEMIC AFFAIRS See Appendix 4 for a listing of research in support of the University’s Diversity Plan. 3. How is diversity integrated into the curriculum of your college? CURRENT INITIATIVES ACADEMIC AFFAIRS STUDENT AFFAIRS Diversity is well integrated into the curriculum at Penn State Altoona. The College regularly offers 27-30 DF or GI courses each semester. Diversity issues are incorporated into a wide variety of courses across the disciplines (See Appendix 3). In 2000-01, a scholar from Brazil was a Fluorite Artist-In-Residence at Penn State Altoona. She taught a class, and produced a dance performance piece set in an Afro-Brazilian context. In Fall 2001, the Writer-in-Residence, Patrick Rozal, is Filipino-American. Faculty at Penn State Altoona have also worked to link the curriculum to out-of-class activities, especially to enhance diversity topics and issues. Several faculty members led a group of students to the Dominican Republic for volunteer work over the 2001 spring break. Another member of the faculty is leading the University’s study abroad program in Puebla, Mexico in summer 2001. The language arts faculty sponsors a foreign poetry slam each semester. The Division of Arts and Humanities sponsors a film series at the Downtown center, which includes foreign films and films that focus on diversity issues. Some faculty in American Studies and Integrative Arts link student assignments to the annual Blair County African-American Heritage Festival each fall. AM ST 105 also asks students to research and write about what they like in rock ‘n’ roll from the past fifteen years then relate it to pre-war genres of African-American music that form the underpinnings of rock ‘n’ roll. Celebrate Diversity!- This community program holds many of its workshops here on the campus. The program is aimed at 7th and 8th graders and is designed to promote tolerance and acceptance of differences among these young adolescents. Faculty collect pre- and post-test data each year on the participants regarding their attitudes in five basic areas: Racial, gender, age, disability and religious diversity. This year the faculty working with the program have added questions designed to assess attitudes and experiences with bullying and harassment. Students in HDFS 311 help collect the data each fall and use it to write their own research paper. This year will be the 7th year of data to be collected with approximately 150 adolescent participants each year. One of our faculty Jerry Zolten reports that in his Pennsylvania Humanities Council talks, where he’s presented as a representative of the University, he discusses popular culture and its impact on racism, stereotypes, and prejudice as well as how music and comedy function as communication about culture. In ENG 469, “Slavery and the American Imagination,” there were public screenings of the movies Amistad and Beloved shown at the Downtown Center, both which were followed by group discussions of issues raised in the films. African-American Poet E. Ethelbert Miller was here as a visiting writer on Sept. 11. The College’s Distinguished Speaker Series, Cultural and Performing Arts Series, and Multicultural programming are integrated reviewed and jointly selected by Student Affairs staff and faculty. These programs are often integrated into courses. Health and Wellness Center staff has presented in classes and have provided in-services, workshops and curriculum materials on diversity as it relates to the health of our students. B. CHALLENGE 5: NEW INITIATIVES FOR 2001-2003 STUDENT AFFAIRS Develop a one-credit course, entitled “Dialogues on Diversity” that explores diversity within the context of the Penn State Altoona community.
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