[University of Pittsburgh]
Education Dive: “Earlier this year, student groups and activists at Pitt sent a pair of letters making several demands of the administration, including that campus police cut ties with Pittsburgh police and that the university teach more about Black history…”
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The University of Pittsburgh is requiring first-year students on two of its campuses to complete a free new course on anti-Black racism.
It’s one of several colleges that are adding courses on social injustice in response to a year marked by nationwide protests against police brutality and racism.
Student activists at Pitt and elsewhere are asking administrators to go beyond adding one-off courses in racism to address social inequities on campus. Experts suggest instructors build anti-racist pedagogy into any class, regardless of discipline.
Dive Insight:
The one-credit, asynchronous class seeks to educate students about the Black experience in the U.S. and the history of anti-racist organizing, according to its online course overview.
Earlier this year, student groups and activists at Pitt sent a pair of letters making several demands of the administration, including that campus police cut ties with Pittsburgh police and that the university teach more about Black history and culture and reform its medical school curriculum to include more information about health disparities and case examples of people of color.
The course is one way the university is answering those criticisms, Ann Cudd, Pitt’s provost and senior vice chancellor, wrote in a message to the campus.
“We have heard from our Black students, as well as Black faculty and staff, that our campus is not the safe, inclusive, and equitable place for all that we are committed to creating,” Cudd wrote.
Read the rest of this Education Dive story here: https://www.educationdive.com/news/pitts-1st-year-students-will-take-anti-black-racism-course/584052/
