CSUSM’s new graduation requirement allows student growth

Sonya Makkanji, opinion writer

A university degree has long been thought to provide students with the means to push forward and lead by example.

 

Students from most colleges within a university are required to take specific classes to show competence in subjects such as writing, math and language in order to complete their degrees and proceed to graduation day.

 

For many students, these requirements alone present a challenge; classes may not be available, sections fill immediately, parking becomes extremely rare. Despite these challenges, it remains possible that graduation is within their grasp. However, that hope just became more elusive.

What has become a common thread missing from the fabric of education is the ability to speak and understand one another. Graduating classes are being cranked out from our campus, every new year brings a gaggle of new students- this year alone almost a total 14,000 students flooded our campus(according to the CSUSM website). With the fresh faced newbies, comes a need to grow their communication skills towards their fellow classmates and future colleagues.

 

Therefore, CSUSM will soon implement a new intercultural communication requirement upon all students. Earlier this year, I was able to attend an academic senate held at our campus, where a change to the graduation requirements would make that communication gap less apparent.

There have been many times where I have been faced with a comment from a peer who passes judgement on another cultural aspect. Weliveinawesternworld, one that encourages us to live by our own ethnocentric values. My hope is that this new requirement will help open up understanding between cultures; something that has been sorely missing in our current social climate as well as parts of our campus.

 

The proposed change I witnessed to add a graduation requirement of an intercultural communication class was eventually passed, albeit with with great opposition. Various departments felt that their students did not need this type of skill set. However in retrospect, it seems that the colleges that opposed it needed it the most.

 

So what does this mean for you? Well, at this point, nothing. However, somewhere down the line of incoming students, there will be a new graduation requirement. One that will allow a cross-cultural, collegewide understanding of each other, customs, culture and possibly cast a wider net on acceptance of these differences.