TCNJ

34 The College of New Jersey Magazine Higher education has long wrestled with questions about inclusion and diversity, but there's been an increased urgency since last summer's racial protests to change the way we see the world and teach our students about it. "What we really need to be thinking about is how can students who are pursuing a particular course of study understand racial inequity, social injustice, systemic and persistent racism within the context of that discipline," says Jeffrey Osborn, a biologist who became TCNJ's provost in July after 14 years as dean of the School of Science. "We have to make structural and cultural changes in our academic disciplines and departments," Osborn says. Change needs to happen not just along the edges — workshops, say, on white privilege or racial injustice — but at the core. Individual classes in every department can impart lasting lessons — that science, for instance, is not solely the province of white men; that English is not the universal language of humanity; that art from beyond the West is worthy of display in museums. "What's exciting is that this is already happening," Osborn says about the way professors are broadening their course designs and the lessons in their classes. "They are engaged in this work at the departmental and school levels. This approach will have long- term impacts, ensuring that these efforts are woven into the fabric of the college's curriculum." Education professor David Bwire

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