FORM LU
UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AT AMHERST
OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY
THE FACULTY SENATE
UNDERGRADUATE GENERAL EDUCATION DESIGNATION PROPOSAL
PROPOSAL FOR UNITED STATES SOCIAL AND CULTURAL DIVERSITY (U) DESIGNATION
The purposes of the U. S. Social and Cultural Diversity requirements are: (1) to emphasize the need for educated citizens to
understand that different cultures and societies provide unique contexts for human experience; (2) to analyze and appreciate the
ways in which norms and values differ across cultures and societies, and (3) to encourage pluralistic perspectives in order to
recognize our culture in relation to other cultures. Courses satisfying the requirements shall reach beyond the perspectives of
mainstream North American culture and the Western traditions. They may focus on the peoples from Africa, Asia, Latin America, or
the Middle East, or the descendants of those peoples, living in North America; Native Americans; or other minorities in U. S. society.
They may focus on the differential life experiences of those whose national, geographic or economic status places them out of the
mainstream of U.S. American society.
With the foregoing in mind, please identify and explain the following (please note that after each set of questions, there is an
expanding text field. Since this field is limitless, you will be able to answer each question in full):
1.
Please provide a brief course description (including prerequisites, if any, and number of credits) such as would be used in
the Undergraduate Catalog.
2.
Please describe the course format and anticipated enrollment per section. Does the course consist of a large lecture
session only, large lecture with discussion/laboratory sections, small class sections? Is it online only, blended face-to-face
and online, web-enhanced, video-based, or some other format?
3.
How does the course address the three purposes of the Diversity requirement?
4.
If this course does not focus entirely on groups or populations included in the above definition, a significant amount of
the course materials must address groups or populations included in those definitions. Such materials should be
integrated into the course’s purpose and design, and not be “tacked on” as a token reference to or section on diversity.
Explain how this is accomplished.
5.
How will the course provoke comparison and critical acuity around issues of social and cultural diversity? All Social World
courses should require writing, and critical writing assignments are preferred. What form of writing will there be in the
course? Please provide samples of writing assignments and the related assessment feedback process used in this course.
(The writing requirement is at minimum 10 cumulative pages throughout the semester and should support the learning
objectives of the course.) When describing examinations and assignments, please specify what is meant by phrases such
as "short (or long) answer" or "short (or long) essay," in terms of length of expected answers/essays and the amount of
time students are expected to spend on each answer/essay.
If anticipated enrollment will exceed 50 students per section, please explain how the department will make possible the
grading and evaluation of writing and problem solving assignments designed to promote critical thinking (e.g., assignment
of teaching assistants for reading/grading). If this aspect of the course has already been addressed by Form LO, simply
provide a reference to the previous response.
6.
Regardless of disciplinary definitions, General Education courses should involve critical or analytic thinking and should
provide contexts for questioning the larger society and the individual’s relation to it. If the “stand-alone” Diversity
designation is proposed, please explain how the course contributes to a student’s “general education” in this respect, if it
does not fit within the curriculum area or interdisciplinary categories.