OUR CURRICULUM DEEPENS
Menlo College’s first minor program offering! By Marianne Marar, Ed.D., Professor of Global Studies This fall, Menlo developed an interdisciplinary minor program in Equity and Justice Studies (EJS). EJS prepares students to meet the growing demand for skills in the examination and resolution of global problems. The curriculum incorporates courses from a variety of disciplines, including history, psychology, economics, and more. In addition, all minors will complete a course in Diversity in the Workplace, Global Studies, or Human Rights in a Global Perspective. The EJS minor will provide a pathway for students to hone their critical transnational consciousness and to embolden their commitment to a more equitable, humane, and just world. I spearheaded the development of the minor because I’ve seen students thirsting for something like this since I arrived at Menlo in 2005. I have been teaching Diversity in the Workplace, one of the cornerstone courses for the minor, since I came to this campus. I see my students come in with a great deal of anxiety about what they’re going to encounter in the workplace, because of what they’re encountering in their daily lives now, and the fear of what that means for their future. A first gen student, or a student grappling with impostor syndrome, or one who has generational trauma that they’re trying to work through; a student who has been impacted by systemic inequities and faces daily microaggressions: they wonder, how do I unpack all of this, and am I set up for failure in my future because I carry all of this with me? But I’m also noticing a shift where students are starting to center the solutions to these issues around themselves, around their generation. Their voices are becoming centered at Menlo College in a way I haven’t seen before and this speaks to both the diversity that we do have at the student level and the diversity that we continue to want to engage. We have a very strong international student culture; we have a strong first gen culture; we have an established multilingual ethos. Recently, a group of students and alumni, Black Student Voices, challenged Menlo College to recognize that it is not immune nor has it ever been immune to injustice. As an educator-activist, I found myself in awe of Black Student Voices because they mobilized and they spoke truth to power and they demanded courses that would critically explore the dynamics of privilege and oppression, and give students the tools to question and then dismantle oppressive systems. I think we at Menlo owe them, and all students who have advocated for a curriculum that addresses issues of systemic injustice, a deep debt of gratitude.
29 SUMMER 2021
