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PARTISAN REVIEW
1980, currently choose from eight year-long sequences. Most, if not
all, of those sequences will be adapted to meet the new guidelines.
The first
elv
objective is to "provide students with the com–
mon intellectual experiences of broadening their understanding of
ideas and values drawn from different strands of our own culture,
and to increase their understanding of cultural diversity and the pro–
cess of cultural interaction," the
elv
draft said.
To that end, students will study works from at least one non–
European culture each quarter.
The program will give attention to race, gender and class, and
it will recruit Stanford minority faculty and faculty with knowledge
of non-European cultures to teach.
Students will also study ancient and medieval cultures.
elv
faculty will decide each year on the program's most com–
mon elements-texts, authors, themes or issues.
Members of the Black Student Union were concerned that the
Western culture track was racist when it began, King said.
We've invested two student generations in debates," King told
the Senate before discussion began Thursday. "It's not one person's
idea of what we'd like to see changed. It's a vision that keeps being
reincarnated. "
In April 1986, BSU members charged that the Western culture
offerings focused on white, upper-class European males.
They took the matter to the committee on Undergraduate Edu–
cation, which voted unanimously to change the requirement.
A faculty-student task force was created to study the program
and suggest changes.
Professors haggled over the definition of "democracy" and
"Western," how many tracks should be offered and whether a core
reading list was necessary.
In January, the debate drew comment from U. S. Secretary of
Education William Bennett.
He said in a
New York Times
article that if the proposal were
passed, it would be an act of "academic intimidation."
The 2 and 112 hour session Thursday threatened to bog down
several times as professors argued different points.
Students Wednesday staged a sit-in at the provost's office to ex–
press their anger over what they called the "betrayal" of the steering
committee.
They claimed the committee had bypassed the legislative pro-
