NoIndoctrination.org - A Victory for Gender Equity at the University of California

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 24, 2005

A Victory for Gender Equity at the University of California

Throughout the California community college system, students take a wide variety of lower-division English courses for which the University of California allows transfer credit. A small sampling of such courses includes "Women Writers," "Introduction to Gay and Lesbian Multicultural Voices in Literature," "U.S. Women's Literature," and "Literature By and About Women."

Yet when Monterey Peninsula College Professor David Clemens designed an academically rigorous course with a broad spectrum of authors ("Literature By and About Men"), U.C. analysts denied transferability of credit for this proposed course, citing two reasons: 1) "Narrow focus" and 2) "No comparable course in lower division at UC."

U.C. does, however, offer "comparable" lower-division literature survey courses, one being UCSD's Winter 2005 freshman course "Latin American Women Writers" (http://literature.ucsd.edu/cf/3qplansec2005.cfm). According to Professor Clemens, "The implied requirement for a 'comparable' course at U.C. is questionable, a dodge used not to insure educational consistency but to restrict development of curriculum perceived as unacceptable to U.C.'s prevailing orthodoxy. A literature survey is a literature survey."

U.C.'s own English courses reveal many with "narrow focus," yet they are allowed for U.C. General Education credit. A few such [lower-division] U.C. English courses offered Winter Quarter 2005 are UCLA's "I Would Diaspora 4U: Sexuality and Black Atlantic Literature" ("http://www.registrar.ucla.edu/schedule/subdet.asp?srs=196198200&term=05W); UCLA's "Writing the Body" (http://www.registrar.ucla.edu/schedule/subdet.asp?srs=196198202&term=05W); and UC Davis' "Critical Inquiry and Literature: The Haunted House in U.S. Literature" (http://wwwenglish.ucdavis.edu/desc_winter.htm).

Given that U.C. allows transferability of community college women's literature courses and offers its own lower division literature courses with narrow focus, Professor Clemens questioned the fairness of U.C.'s November 2004 decision to deny transferability of his proposed course. The professor made three attempts to obtain clarification from U.C.'s Articulation Analyst and U.C. President Robert Dynes, but U.C. failed to acknowledge his written requests.

In frustration Professor Clemens contacted NoIndoctrination.org (a nonpartisan, nonprofit campus watchdog organization) and submitted a detailed posting. Before the posting went online, NoIndoctrination.org researched the information, and the professor sent corroborating evidence. (Professor Clemens' posting can be read at http://www.noindoctrination.org/cgibin/display_record.cgi?uid=451.) NoIndoctrination.org notified U.C. Articulation Analyst Shiela Lau, U.C. President Robert Dynes, and the U.C. Board of Regents of the posting and offered U.C. a chance to rebut any specifics in it. No rebuttal was submitted.

Shortly thereafter, Professor Clemens learned that U.C. had a change of heart. It decided it would initiate its own unusual appeal of the course's rejection. Dawn Sheibani, UC's Principal Analyst for Community College Articulation, explained to Professor Clemens that U.C.'s rejection was in part because "we have never seen this before" while admitting that such reasoning sounded like "Catch 22."

After further review by U.C. faculty, "Literature By and About Men" has now been accepted for transfer, making it the only English course in the nine campus U.C. and 109 campus California community college systems to survey "multiple sources, enactments, and depictions of maleness, manhood, and masculinity in essays, films, short stories, and poetry either by men or about men." "I'm sure the publicity played a big part in U.C.'s decision to recant," states Professor Clemens.

"The initial denial of transferability gives the distinct impression that U.C.'s transfer decisions are capricious and arbitrary or else are dictated by sociopolitical agendas," claims Luann Wright, president and founder of NoIndoctrination.org. "Hypocrisy, double standards, and gender discrimination must never be tolerated at the University of California. U.C. corrected this wrong. This is a victory for gender equity."

Both Luann Wright and Professor David Clemens are available for interviews.

About NoIndoctrination.org: NoIndoctrination.org is an all-volunteer educational nonprofit organization. It has no political, religious, or instituional affiliation; its sole focus is education.