U of A students won’t need diversity classes to graduate after all

The University of Arizona will not, as previously expected, make certain classes — including diversity and equity courses — be graduation requirements for undergraduates as part of its new general education curriculum set to start next year.

UA committee members who worked on the upcoming general education requirements say this outcome was being discussed long before President Donald Trump ordered in January that universities eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.

In February, however, university officials had said the new general education curriculum — set to begin in fall 2026 — would have an undergraduate requirement for students to choose courses, titled “Exploring Perspectives and Building Connections,” to fulfill the following “topical area” requirements: diversity and equity; quantitative reasoning; world cultures and societies; and writing.

UA spokesperson Mitch Zak had told the Arizona Daily Star then that he was uncertain whether the federal orders on DEI would affect the curriculum.

Then, on May 22, Zak said, “University faculty and academic leaders have agreed to continue the current practice that does not require specific attribute-related courses. We will keep tracking these attributes to strengthen the general education program as needed, but they are not required for graduation.”

“This decision acknowledges longstanding faculty concerns, unrelated to recent federal developments, and reflects our shared commitment to supporting student success through a strong, well-rounded undergraduate experience,” Zak said.

Members of the University-Wide General Education Committee, known as UWGEC, working on the curriculum, made similar comments.

As of now, while the four attributes listed above will not be graduation requirements, students will still be able to choose them as part of the general education courses they take.

Jeremy Vetter, UWGEC chair, said the committee had been discussing whether or not to make the attributes graduation requirements for the past few years.

It gathered data in a fall 2024 study, along with significant feedback from academic advisors. The data showed many students were already taking the attributes and that making them a graduation requirement would lead to complications, he said.

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“The graduation requirement will not be in place for any of the attributes, not just D&E (diversity and equity). And, in fact, this is not a change from the current practice, since what is being removed is a provision that would have started requiring them to be tracked as graduation requirements in fall 2026,” said Vetter, an associate professor of history.

“One thing we discovered,” he said, “is that the added complication of having to track (the four) attributes is an undesirable complication for students and we have heard this often from academic advisors especially.”

The decision to remove the graduation requirement came after back-and-forth discussions between the UWGEC and the UA administration, which this year had suggested a language change to the diversity and equity attribute.

The changed language, if it had been approved, would have changed the title of the diversity and equity attribute to “Understanding and Valuing Differences” and its description would have read: “Classes focus on recognizing and valuing different human experiences and viewpoints, understanding interpersonal and intergroup dynamics through awareness of social positions, and exercising flexible habits of mind when exposed to new ideas, different opinions, and complex societal problems.”

By contrast, the current wording of the diversity and equity attribute is: “Classes with the Diversity and Equity Attribute will focus on issues such as racism, classism, sexism, ableism, imperialism, colonialism, transphobia, xenophobia, and other structured inequities. It is our responsibility as Wildcats to promote greater social equity.”

Since the language change was not approved by the committee, the compromise reached was that the graduation requirements should be removed instead.

Vetter said there are a lot of different course options with the diversity and equity attribute.

“For example, a D&E course could focus on African American literature, or the experiences of people with hearing disabilities, or ethnic diversity in China, just to name a few of the dozens and dozens of examples,” said Vetter. “There are also a similarly large number of options of courses with the other (three) attributes, which students may choose even as they aren’t required to take them in any particular configuration.”

Making the four attributes, including the gender and equity attribute, a graduation requirement was initially set to go into effect in 2022 but was postponed to fall 2024, Mark Stegeman, a UA associate professor of economics and a UWGEC member, previously told the Star. The change was first approved in December 2020, and later approved by the undergraduate council, the UA Faculty Senate and the Arizona Board of Regents in 2021.

Vetter said, after the attributes were put into the curriculum, the general education committee wanted to provide time to evaluate how students were navigating the curriculum.

“By the time last fall rolled around, I think the feedback we were getting, especially from academic advisors, were really, really strongly against implementing them (the four attributes) as graduation requirements,” Vetter said.