Syracuse University’s Student Association is working with campus committees to redesign the university’s SEM 100 course.

SEM 100, a mandatory diversity course for freshmen and transfer students, is currently a five-week class that does not count for academic credit. Students have said the current program is ineffective in addressing diversity and inclusion issues at SU.

The reformed SEM 100 would be a semester-long one-credit class that would pair with a separate three-credit diversity and inclusion course requirement, said Kira Reed, associate professor of management and chair of the University Senate Committee on Curricula.

If passed, the changes could be implemented beginning in fall 2021, SA vice president Sameeha Saied said.

#NotAgainSU, a movement led by Black students, called for the university to revise SEM 100 in its list of 19 demands presented to Chancellor Kent Syverud in November. The chancellor signed 16 of the demands as written, including the SEM 100 provision, and revised the remaining three.

“What students were demanding through that movement was already what was being aimed toward,” Saied said. “The biggest thing that they did was to let senators and faculty know that this needs to happen now.”

The university has worked to improve the seminar since it launched in fall 2018, Saied said.

SA has been involved in several committees working to revamp SEM 100, including the USen’s ad hoc committee on SEM 100 and the Curriculum Campus Engagement Committee, Saied said.

“One of the biggest issues with this course is that it needs to be approved by the (University Senate) in order to become a course,” Saied said. “Getting something like this to go through is extremely difficult.”

Every school and college at SU has to vote to approve the course before it can be a part of its curriculum, Reed said. The university is working to create a course that will keep students involved and interested, she said.

“Students want to have fun. They don’t just want these intense conversations every week,” Reed said. “We want to have field trips and other activities in addition to the discussion sections.”

The revised seminar course will be based on lectures, podcasts and performances, Saied said. The sessions will take place during the regular academic day rather than the evenings, as SEM 100 classes are now, she said.

Reed said students and faculty from diverse backgrounds and from every school and college have been included in conversations about updating the seminar.

The USen ad hoc committee has collected over 4,000 surveys and has held several focus groups to collect data on SEM 100, Reed said. The committee also hosted an open forum in January to hear student feedback on the course, she said.

The committee found that only 20% of students in last year’s SEM 100 course read the seminar’s required reading, she said.

“It’s going to be challenging to find any one book that will capture what we have, so podcasts and performances related to the topic and lectures is what students and academic advisers have told us works best,” Reed said.

SA would like to send a letter to every SU school and college’s curriculum committee encouraging them to adopt the new requirement, Saied said at last Monday’s SA meeting. SA is seeking feedback from its members before moving forward with the letter, she said.

Published on March 9, 2020 at 12:04 am

Contact Mira: mlberenb@syr.edu