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Bautista is a second-year computer science and engineering student.

By Randy Bautista

Over the past few weeks, I have read several columns and letters in the Viewpoint attacking the campaign for a diversity requirement. I feel it is necessary to respond to these attacks by explaining the actual facts about the campaign and the necessity of having a diversity requirement in our education.

First of all, the diversity requirement that we are campaigning for will not add to the number of required classes. The proposed changes under the “Foundations of Society and Culture” require that a student take a class of social analysis, a class of historical analysis, and a third class from either subgroup. The diversity requirement campaign seeks to turn this third class into a diversity requirement that would “emphasize the experiences of the major American ethnic minority groups, women and LGBTs by examining the social constructions of race, gender and sexuality in the context of American historical, political and cultural institutions.” The campaign does not ask that students take an extra class about diversity – the campaign asks that a class already within the current proposal become the diversity requirement.

The reason why this campaign even exists is that it is essential for students to understand the society in which we live. People have argued that it is unnecessary to learn about the constructions of race or gender or sexuality because these issues don’t apply to them. Well, I respond by referring to April 28, 1992: the day of the Los Angeles riots. I respond by referring to the hate crimes and sexual assaults committed at UCLA, a campus that is supposed to be one of the most safe, diverse and accepting in the nation. Do you think these acts of violence came out of nowhere?

In order to prevent such violent acts from happening again, we must move beyond mere sympathy for the victims and examine the root causes of such violence. It is our responsibility as future leaders of this nation that we understand these social problems and provide educated solutions, or we will be forced to answer for our ignorance like we did on April 28. We must be committed in our education to understand the social ills of our society in order to cure them, and a diversity requirement would be the first step in that commitment.

As a student dedicated to this campaign, I challenge the student body of UCLA to make the commitment with us and demand that we implement a diversity requirement. Become educated about this issue. Take a stand, so that we, together, can improve our education here at UCLA.

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