University of California, Irvine School of Law (UCI Law) faculty has voted to adopt a graduation requirement necessitating students to complete a graded course that includes substantial content relating to “race and indigeneity, structural inequity, and the historical bases for such inequity.”
They also adopted a new first-year elective that meets the race and indigeneity requirement.
UCI Law already offers multiple courses devoted to race, indigeneity and the law that fulfill the requirement.
More courses are on the way.
“Led by UCI Law’s Curriculum Committee and its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Committee, the new graduation requirement supports a larger effort by faculty to integrate considerations of race and indigeneity, particularly in the first-year required courses, but also in required core clinics and other upper-level courses,” according to UCI Law officials. “Students will have pervasive exposure to critical concepts rooted in a range of equity categories, including race and indigeneity, dis/ability, gender and sexuality, socioeconomic background, survivors of family and domestic violence, system-involvement, and veteran status.”