WHY DO WE HAVE A EUROPEAN TRADITIONS REQUIREMENT?
ciara thrower
FOR THE PAST YEAR, I have been working on getting rid of the Undergraduate European Traditions requirement. Ever since I was admitted to UCSB and looked over the GE requirements, the European Traditions requirement always felt wrong to me. Seeing as throughout K-12 education, students learn about Europe and its impact on America, I found it odd that it was still mandated that we learn about Europe exclusively. So, at the beginning of my third year I asked so friends and the online UCSB community for their input. I was surprised by how many people agreed with me, so I embarked on a journey to end the requirement. At the beginning of winter quarter I had a meeting with the head of the academic senate, set up meetings with professors for their support and began writing what became a 15 page proposal that I put so much energy into creating. I felt empowered that I actually did something that could potentially change the university for a long time. Seeing as students do not often do this, it was awesome to build something that would better academic life and diversify the student experience by exposing them to the importance of other cultures. At the end of winter quarter, I had the honor of being endorsed by the AS senate and had a article written about the proposal by the 18
Daily Nexus. I felt so good having things actually happening. Then, COVID-19 hit. COVID-19 seriously disrupted a lot of my plans related to and not related to the proposal specifically. I am a rising fourth year and had many plans abruptly ended because of the pandemic. Taking 193CR and learning about personal resilience helped me understand that in dire situations, it is imperative to continue growing and continue fighting for what you want to accomplish. So, I recently sent out a final draft of my proposal on my social media accounts to continue to rally support and get my peers excited for what will come next. After I look over each and every revision, I will then send it to the professors that have been working so diligently in helping me turn my vision into a reality. Hopefully this summer, via zoom, I will meet with the academic senate and they will go over my concerns. I really have high hopes that they will see where I’m coming from and then remove this requirement for undergrads. It is imperative that we all keep trying to make the best out of this collective unfortunate situation. If my senior year gets cancelled, at least I can continue to fight for my goals and further instances of social justice on and off our campus.