President’s View Engaging the Culture, Changing the World
SPU’s Cultural Understanding and Engagement (CUE) Curriculum
Initiated by students, led by faculty
Faculty at Seattle Pacific are in the final stages of designing a Cultural Understanding and Engagement (CUE) curriculum which will be implemented into the university’s general education requirements beginning in the 2017–18 academic year. The CUE requirement will be a vital aspect of a student’s academic experience and highlight one of SPU’s signature commitments to be a place that “understands and engages a multicultural and complex world.”
It gives students the opportunity to fulfill the following learning objectives:
- Understand patterns and histories of inequity
- Understand cultural, racial, ethnic, and gender differences interpersonally and in society
- Prepare for vocations with cultivation of diverse workplaces, conflict resolution, peacemaking, and community development
- Articulate reconciliation as participation in God’s reconciling work in the world
The CUE curriculum, embedded in the Common Curriculum and in courses in a variety of majors, will emphasize a multilayered approach to teaching and understanding issues around diversity and reconciliation and be shared across faculty and disciplines. The desire for a more diverse curriculum started in 2012, after more than 500 students signed a petition asking the university to include diversity and/or cultural competency in its curriculum.