#ucpatriarchy

PETITION TO MAKE GENDER STUDIES A REQUIREMENT AT UCR!

Education is a university’s most powerful and appropriate tool for addressing gender inequality and gender-related violence on campus. In light of numerous recent incidents exposing UC campuses as often hostile or unsafe environments for women students, the need to step up educational interventions is clear. The evidence is mounting that students would benefit from critical attention to the intersections of gender and violence.

Daphne Ferreiro (on the need for a gender studies requirement at UCR)

UC Riverside students are demanding and putting forward a proposal to the UC Riverside Academic Senate that would make Gender Studies a breadth requirement. We ask that you support us by signing this petition that will be brought forth to the Academic Senate along with the proposal. 

'Education is a university's most powerful and appropriate tool for addressing gender inequality and gender-related violence on campus. In light of numerous recent incidents exposing UC campuses as often hostile or unsafe environments for women students, the need to step up educational interventions is clear. The evidence is mounting that students would benefit from critical attention to the intersections of gender and violence. For instance, the Obama administration's investigation of the mishandling of sexual assault cases on two UC campuses; the recent shootings at UC Santa Barbara described by the male perpetrator as retribution for not receiving the sexual attention from women he believed he deserved; the hostile climate created annually by massive photographic displays of aborted fetuses in the center of UC campuses; and the role of sexism and the objectification of women in the entertainment culture of the university.  Two recent examples specific to UCR illustrate the latter problem quite clearly. During Ludacris' recent performance at UCR's Spring Splash, he called out to students about "UCR girls giving UCR head!" While sex itself is not the problem, and sex has a place in campus life, we believe UCR has an obligation to teach students to recognize that women are almost always the objects in such representations, and men the agents. This pattern of objectifying women for students' entertainment was also demonstrated during winter quarter, when UCR's Associated Students Program Board brought the Adult Swim inflatable funhouse to campus.  The funhouse, displayed in the center of campus, featured an exit where students slid through the giant, inflatable open legs of a woman's body. Arguably, the sort of climate created by these incidents feeds into the stream of sexual violence at UC Riverside.  A greater awareness of the systems that oppress women, men, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer identified people can be a powerful influence in a university setting where sexual assault, rape, bullying, and hazing are known to occur. 

In light of the normalization of misogyny and gendered violence in the broader culture, we feel it is naïve for us to imagine that UCR students will have the critical thinking skills necessary to question these forces—unless students have been provided with the training and skills to do so. Through inclusion of gender in UCR’s general education program, the campus can take the needed steps to accomplish its goal of, "[setting] an example of respect for all people," as its own Principles of Community stress [3]. As a university that prides itself on academic achievement and a climate of respect, UCR’s investment in gender studies will position the campus as a national and global leader that teaches students not only about the crisis of rape culture (on campuses, in the military, and beyond) but also about the central role of gender in shaping how labor is divided, how products are sold, how wars are justified, how children are raised, and almost every other realm of social life.'

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Student Senate Votes Unanimously to Bring Gender Studies Requirement to UCR Press release

Riverside, California, May 2014— Students and faculty at the University of California, Riverside are working to bring a gender studies breadth requirement to their campus, ensuring that all students take at least one gender-­related course before they graduate.

On May 21, The Associated Students of UC Riverside (ASUCR) voted 14-­0​ for the requirement to be implemented at the University of California, Riverside. The senate plans to reach out to other UC and California-­b​ased schools to consider improvements to general education.

As of now, the ASUCR senate plans to take the requirement to the faculty senate. UCR already offers 200 courses, across multiple departments, that can fulfill the proposed requirement.

“It was impressive to see how the student organizers and senators commonly supported the place of gender studies in a good UC education -­ one that can prepare them to participate consciously in building a more just future,” said Tammy C. Ho, an associate professor of women’s studies at UCR in attendance at the meeting. “This requirement puts UCR on the vanguard of addressing the rape culture and sexual assault crisis that has been increasingly uncovered on college campuses and in the American military.”

Daphne Ferreiro, an Asian Studies major, was among the 50 students in attendance to support the requirement and speak at the meeting. “We are asking UCR to take that leading step to become the example other universities throughout the state can look up to, to use the power of education that is so valuable to our university in order to ensure that our campus is safe for those who experience oppression,” said Ferreiro. “UCR can act for justice.”

One in four college women report surviving rape according to One in Four USA. Through attention to gender issues in university curriculum, students and faculty at UCR hope to change the outcome of those statistics.

"Because gender is absolutely central in the United States to how work is divided, how products are sold, how wars are justified, how children are raised, and almost every other realm of social life, it makes perfect sense that gender studies would be part of the broad general education that universities provide their students,” said Jane Ward, associate professor of women’s studies at UCR.

Currently, no UC campus requires students to take a course that examines gender or its impact on society. If the student­-endorsed requirement is approved by the faculty, UCR will become a national leader among universities working to address campus sexual assault and gender discrimination.

“A gender studies requirement would allow UCR students that identify as Trans* or Queer to feel safer navigating their way throughout campus and interacting with their peers. It will provide better opportunities for solidarity and dialogue,” said Ashlee Turner, a double major in African American Studies and Women’s Studies, and President of Queer Alliance on campus.

The implementation of the requirement will not prolong students’ time to graduate.