SJI CURRICULUM Proposal 4-4-08

SJI Proposal for Curriculum Advancement

The Social Justice Initiative proposes that Hamilton College structurally foster the enrollment of all students in courses which would teach issues of historical dominance and marginalization. The Social Justice Initiative defines these courses as diversity intensive courses.

Race, class, and gender are three of the most considerable categories of identity and division inside and outside of the US. Such issues are currently addressed in several courses offered by the college. Upon graduation, however, too few are the Hamilton students who leave having studied such issues in the classroom, and many more walk the aisle without having received this aspect of their education.

The administered promotion of such classes will more accurately achieve the enumerated Purposes and Goals of the College, as indicated in the following lines of the Hamilton College catalogue:

• “Graduates should be poised to investigate new avenues of knowledge, to respond creatively to new and unexpected situations and to address problems and challenges in a morally and intellectually courageous manner…”

• “Students of unusual talents to realize their fullest capacities, for their own benefit and that of the world in which they will live…”

• “They should recognize the limits of factual information and become attuned to how such information can be used and misused…”

• “Above all, students should develop respect for intellectual and cultural diversity because such respect promotes free and open inquiry, independent thought and mutual understanding…”


Diversity Intensive Courses should promote critical consciousness and understanding for students about the intersection of race, class, and gender. These courses would both inform students and equip them with the tools to sensitively and confidently engage in dialogues with fellow classmates from a range of backgrounds and experiences.

Hamilton maintains an open curriculum because the college aims to teach students to speak, write, and think well. The skill of approaching and understanding difference is structurally parallel and fundamental to the previous two skills, speaking and writing.

Hamilton College cannot successfully or completely educate the students who miss these classes. Although Hamilton already offers a large variety of what would qualify as diversity intensive courses, it is possible for students to graduate without ever taking one.



The Social Justice Initiative suggests the following options:

Departmental requirements:
We strongly believe that every department has the capacity to offer a number of diversity intensive courses and that they should be required to do so. This would demonstrate how diversity relates to any area of study. This would also allow students to study diversity in a way that is relevant to their other academic interests.

Diversity Intensive requirement:
The Diversity Intensive requirement would function exactly like the Writing Intensive requirement in that students may fulfill the requirement in any department offering Diversity Intensive courses. Much like the proposed departmental requirements, we believe that a Diversity Intensive requirement would allow students to study diversity in a way that is relevant to their other academic interests. We also believe that this would be most effective if applied in conjunction with departmental requirements.

Freshman seminar:
A seminar style course, required for transfer students as well as freshman, would offer a forum to discuss diversity as well as orient new students to issues of diversity at Hamilton College. Such a seminar could be modeled after College 130.