Student Senate Votes Unanimously to Bring Gender Studies Requirement to UCR Press release
Riverside, California, May 2014— Students and faculty at the University of California, Riverside are working to bring a gender studies breadth requirement to their campus, ensuring that all students take at least one gender-related course before they graduate.
On May 21, The Associated Students of UC Riverside (ASUCR) voted 14-0 for the requirement to be implemented at the University of California, Riverside. The senate plans to reach out to other UC and California-based schools to consider improvements to general education.
As of now, the ASUCR senate plans to take the requirement to the faculty senate. UCR already offers 200 courses, across multiple departments, that can fulfill the proposed requirement.
“It was impressive to see how the student organizers and senators commonly supported the place of gender studies in a good UC education - one that can prepare them to participate consciously in building a more just future,” said Tammy C. Ho, an associate professor of women’s studies at UCR in attendance at the meeting. “This requirement puts UCR on the vanguard of addressing the rape culture and sexual assault crisis that has been increasingly uncovered on college campuses and in the American military.”
Daphne Ferreiro, an Asian Studies major, was among the 50 students in attendance to support the requirement and speak at the meeting. “We are asking UCR to take that leading step to become the example other universities throughout the state can look up to, to use the power of education that is so valuable to our university in order to ensure that our campus is safe for those who experience oppression,” said Ferreiro. “UCR can act for justice.”
One in four college women report surviving rape according to One in Four USA. Through attention to gender issues in university curriculum, students and faculty at UCR hope to change the outcome of those statistics.
"Because gender is absolutely central in the United States to how work is divided, how products are sold, how wars are justified, how children are raised, and almost every other realm of social life, it makes perfect sense that gender studies would be part of the broad general education that universities provide their students,” said Jane Ward, associate professor of women’s studies at UCR.
Currently, no UC campus requires students to take a course that examines gender or its impact on society. If the student-endorsed requirement is approved by the faculty, UCR will become a national leader among universities working to address campus sexual assault and gender discrimination.
“A gender studies requirement would allow UCR students that identify as Trans* or Queer to feel safer navigating their way throughout campus and interacting with their peers. It will provide better opportunities for solidarity and dialogue,” said Ashlee Turner, a double major in African American Studies and Women’s Studies, and President of Queer Alliance on campus.
The implementation of the requirement will not prolong students’ time to graduate.
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