Demand that the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) replace the European Traditions GE requirement with an American Indian and Indigenous Studies GE requirement. 

 

To graduate from UCSB, undergraduates are required to take a number of General Education “Special Subject Area” Requirements. These include one “European Traditions” course, one “Ethnicity” course, and one “World Cultures” course. Despite the university being situated on Chumash land and directly benefiting from the exploitation of indigenous peoples in a variety of contexts, there is NO requirement for UCSB students to be exposed to any form of American Indian and Indigenous Studies throughout their undergraduate education. 

It is shameful that students can pass through their entire undergraduate career at UCSB with no knowledge of the indigenous peoples whose land they learn on. 

Additionally, the current structure of UCSB’s “Special Subject Area” Requirements reinforces a  Eurocentric curriculum which upholds the Western European perspective as the model against which all other cultures are measured. This can be seen in the fact that there is ONE course required for the extremely broad categories of “World Cultures” and “Ethnicity”, while another GE requirement is devoted solely to the much more specific category of “European Traditions”.  Even within the descriptions of these Special Area Requirements, it is apparent that they have been framed through a Eurocentric view: 

From UCSB’s General Catalog: 

European Traditions Requirement: Objective: To learn to analyze early and/or modern European cultures and their significance in world affairs.

One course is required.

World Cultures Requirement

(College of Letters and Science only)

Objective: To learn to identify, understand, and appreciate the history, thought, and practices of one or more culture outside of the European tradition.

One course is required.

Ethnicity Requirement

Objective: To learn to identify and understand the philosophical, intellectual, historical, and/or cultural experiences of HISTORICALLY oppressed and excluded racial minorities in the United States.

One course is required.

American students have already been exposed to classes framed through the Western European perspective for their entire academic careers, thanks to the contributions of centuries of colonization. However, most students have never been exposed to a single course framed through a American Indian and Indigenous Studies perspective. 

UCSB is on Chumash land, and YET: Native American students make up only 0.198% of the student population, there are very few indigenous professors teaching on campus, and there is an extremely limited course selection within this subject. There is no major in American Indian and Indigenous Studies at UCSB, and the few classes that are offered are based out of the Religious Studied department. 

 

Our solution to this problem is to foreground the history and culture of American Indian and Indigenous Studies by making it a course requirement for all UCSB undergraduate students.

There is already a precedent for this at the University of Alaska, where all undergraduate students must complete a certain number of Alaska Native-themed coursework in order to graduate. According to Evon Peter, vice chancellor for rural, community and Native education at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, “the implementation has been successful and has seen an increase in Alaska Native-related classes being taken.” (Source: https://indiancountrytoday.com/news/indigenous-studies-requirement-is-a-no-brainer

 

ASK: Demand that UCSB replace the European Traditions GE requirement with an Indigenous studies course requirement. 

This would benefit the entire academic community at UCSB in a multitude of ways: 

Students would benefit: UCSB is supposed to give students a well rounded education, and learning about American Indian and Indigenous Studies is sorely needed by the UCSB student population, which is overwhelmingly uninformed about this topic
American Indian and Indigenous scholars would benefit: There are not many Native professors hired at UCSB, and increasing class occupancy in these course subjects would, by design, increase UCSB’s need for Indigenous professors, academics, and voices that have been disproportionately excluded 
UCSB would benefit: Encouraging Native scholarship would not only encourage Indigenous students and academics, but would also help UCSB uplift a community they have historically subjugated on their own land. UCSB would also be one of the first universities to implement this policy, which would be groundbreaking in its own right. 

We ask that the UCSB Administration replace the European Traditions GE requirement with an American Indian and Indigenous Studies GE requirement by Fall 2023. This should give administration more than enough time to hire more indigneous professors, expand the course offerings in this subject, and complete any other necessary adjustments. 

Please sign this petition to demand change now!