Tandi Mohammed sat in the middle of a lecture on magazine design two summers ago when the topic turned to O.J. Simpson and his portrayal on the cover of Time and Newsweek magazines.

Mohammed, a graduate student in photography, was surprised when the professor turned directly to a group of black students and said, ”How do you all feel about it?”

‘I was surprised because everyone should have an opinion,’ Mohammed said.

Because of these types of situations, Syracuse University faculty and administration have started to examine how to incorporate diversity into the curriculum.

‘In terms of creating a culture of appreciation for difference and appreciation of awareness it must be knitted into the fabric of our experience,’ said Carrie Jefferson Smith, a professor in the School of Social Work.

Smith, with Professor Mara Sapon-Shevin, is leading the Vision Fund program, ‘EndRacism EndinJustice.” Last Friday, the program held a conference that brought together faculty members and teaching assistants to have a dialogue on diversity. She said Friday’s conference marks just the beginning.

‘I hope that this will become something that is more substantial,’ Smith said.

The idea for the conference and the program arose from student concerns about receiving support from faculty members during diversity issues. One story that stood out for Smith involved a student from Jordan who became extremely uncomfortable in a class after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks when a student made a statement about all Palestinians being killed at birth. The professor in the class didn’t offer any support, Smith said.

For Smith, the answer to this problem is getting faculty involved in figuring out how to introduce diversity issues in the classroom, Smith said. She would like to see faculty members have more dialogue on diversity and even do practice scenarios.

Harlan London, an adviser to Vice Chancellor Deborah Freund, said incorporating diversity into the curriculum is a requirement because students heading into the real world must have that skill.

‘We’re moving into an era where diversity is going to be a necessity because students need to know how to deal with diverse people,’ London said.

Revisiting the core requirements and requiring all students to take a course or two that focuses on diversity is definitely a possibility, London said. The difficulty lies in finding relevant ways to introduce diversity into existing courses, especially math and science courses.

Wednesday afternoon, the Center for Support of Teaching and Learning held a luncheon that focused on creative ways to introduce diversity into the classroom. Information Studies Professor Craig Watters talked about how he has introduced diversity into his class.

In Watters’ class, he has his students do projects in rural Onondaga County and asks the students to focus on how adding broadband technology will affect users who often from a lower economic background.

‘The focus moves from technology to the users.’ Watters said. ‘Now they can make links between race, class and gender.’

Monika Wadman, an English and textual studies professor, talked about her Native American Literature class and how she decided to bring in several speakers from the Oneida Nation to help teach the class. One of the questions she raised was whether or not only Native Americans can teach a Native American Literature class. The question raised a larger issue on who can teach classes about diversity.

‘I don’t think you have to be a certain race or religion to teach a class, but you have to have a certain sensitivity,’ said CSTL teaching consultant Ruth Stein.

London said emphatically that race is ‘absolutely not’ a requirement for teaching a class. A professor’s knowledge base on the subject is the most important thing, he said.

Situations like Mohammed’s are a disservice to the students singled out and the other students in the class, London said.

‘There’s no such thing as a black voice,’ he said. ‘There are black voices.’

Published on November 21, 2002 at 12:00 pm