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Inclusion, diversity, equity and accessibility “are integral to models of social justice,” Syracuse University’s course catalog says. These four components make up IDEA, a course requirement for all undergraduate students at SU.

FYS 101, a one-credit symposium created as a reformed version of SEM 100, a zero-credit first-year seminar created in response to the protests after the Theta Tau incident in spring 2018, is required for all incoming and transfer students at SU. FYS 101 covers topics such as discrimination and bias.

Schools at SU have different courses and different requirements for IDEA.

The College of Arts and Sciences offers 85 different courses that fulfill the IDEA requirement, the most of any school on campus. The Martin J. Whitman School of Management only offers one: “Minority and Woman’s Entrepreneurship: Race, Gender, and Entrepreneurial Opportunity.”

Some colleges on campus, such as Newhouse School of Public Communications and Whitman, have a uniform IDEA requirement for all of their programs, Kelly Bogart, a University Senate affairs specialist, told The Daily Orange in an email.

“It’s easier for the schools if they have a single policy for their students,” Bogart said.

For Newhouse, students can either take “Race, Gender, and the Media” or “Beauty and Diversity in Fashion Media.” In Whitman, any three-credit IDEA course — whether it is the Whitman course or not — can be used to fulfill the school’s requirement.

IDEA’s list of courses ranges from the School of Architecture’s “Postcolonial Spaces” to Falk College’s “Food, Identity and Power.”

The College of Engineering and Computer Science, which does not have an IDEA course offered in the school, requires one three-credit IDEA course, which is typically fulfilled by taking a class in the College of Arts and Sciences, said Maria Marceau, director of student records and study abroad for ECS, in an email statement. ECS students can also petition to take their IDEA requirement outside of Arts and Sciences, Marceau said.

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Students enrolled in Arts and Sciences are required to take two IDEA courses, Bogart said.

Bogart also said that different programs within the same school can have different IDEA requirements. For example, in the College of Visual and Performing Arts, students pursuing a degree in Music Education are required to take “Foundations of Music Education,” said Ralph Lorenz, the senior associate dean of VPA, in an email statement.

Students in Falk College are free to fulfill their IDEA requirement with any course on the university-wide approved list, said Kelly Pettingill, the academic operations manager at Falk College Dean’s Office.

Bogart said that due to the sheer amount of programs SU has, it is impossible to compile every possible IDEA requirement.

“Without going into every program catalog page, you’re never going to know every variation of how students may apply that requirement,” she said.

Published on October 6, 2021 at 12:54 am

Contact Kyle: kschouin@syr.edu | @Kyle_Chouinard