Definition of Human Diversity:
These courses offer means to achieving several of the College's stated goals for undergraduate education; specifically, this addresses the expectation that in the course of earning a degree, students will enhance their abilities to communicate with people of different cultural perspectives; to listen carefully and respectfully to views of others, especially views with which they disagree; and to employ ethical reasoning tin judging ideas, actions, and their implications. These courses explore the challenges of building a diverse society, and/or examine the various processes that marginalize people and produce unequal power relations in terms of race, nationality, ethnicity, sexuality, religion, gender, age, or economic status.
A student can complete the Human Diversity (D) requirement in one of three ways.
1. Enrolling in an approved course at Cornell University.
The following ways can take several weeks for a response. Please plan accordingly.
2. Request approval of a transfer course taken at another institution by sending the following information to the Chair of the CALS Human Diversity Committee (Mark W. Wysocki mww3@cornell.edu)
a. Transfer Institution:
b. Course number:
c. Course Name:
d. Semester enrolled:
e. Course Instructor:
f. Instructor contact information:
3. With approval (steps outlined below) transfer a course while taken abroad towards Human Diversity.
The Process for obtaining Human Diversity (D) credit for a class taken abroad
In order to obtain credit towards the CALS Human Diversity requirement a student must complete the following tasks for submission to the CALS Human Diversity Committee:
- The Class must be taken for credit at a pre-approved institution during the fall/spring semester.
- The student must obtain a detailed course syllabus, which indicates the topics or lectures that cover one of more of the three diversity areas (see below) and this must be submitted to the Human Diversity Committee.
- The faculty member who taught the course abroad must provide a written justification on how the course meets the 50% content in one or more of the three diversity areas (see below).
- The student must formalize request through an online petition (wait to do this until you’re sure you can get the professor to complete the written justification since petitions cannot be reviewed without it).
- Once the course is complete the student must send an official transcript to CALS Student Services documenting the class and grade.
Human Diversity Areas
All courses that satisfy the Human Diversity requirement should have at least 50% content in one of the following three areas.
- Area 1: Courses that critically analyzes historically or contemporary marginalized* communities
- Area 2: Courses that cover diverse processes that produce unequal power relations in terms of race, nationality, ethnicity, sexuality, religion, gender, age, or economic status.
- Area 3: Courses that cover the challenges of building a diverse society
*Definition of “marginalize”: Any groups with reduced access to social status, political influence, economic advancement, educational advancement, health care, information, or any of the goods, services, and powers of a society can be considered “marginalized.” Causes of marginalization may be related to ethnic status, religion, country of origin, sexual orientation, geography, economics, and government policies. Those who exist on the furthest margins of a society are frequently subject to several of these forces.