What are the Complaints Against Colgate’s Core? 

While other colleges such as Columbia University have faced backlash against their core curricula due to the sheer number of classes required, the most common criticism of  Colgate’s Core Curriculum is the Eurocentrism of the assigned texts. Specifically, students have complained for years that the texts read in both Challenges of Modernity and Legacies of the Ancient World focus too much on Western perspectives — texts authored typically by older white men to be read by future generations of white men. If the goal of the common core is to “explore questions, texts, and patterns of thought that form the foundation of human societies” and only Western texts are being taught, the connotation is that the West is the only foundation for human societies.

What is a Solution to This Complaint?

Incorporating non-Western texts such as the Epic of Sunjata and the Qur’an would solve this Eurocentric complaint by providing important global context. Both of the texts are ancient literature that explore long standing issues of identity and self, further developing the student’s habits of mind which are both crucial in college and professionally. Including these texts would continue to clear up the goal of these classes by reestablishing the fact that traditions are not required to be Western. 

Did Reading These Texts Help Resolve the Problems of the Core?

In her Legacies of the Ancient World class, Professor Elizabeth Marlowe teaches the Epic of Sunjata and the Qur’an alongside Western texts such as Homer and the Bible as important, global context to current events. Reading these two texts reduced the sense of Eurocentrism while further helping the student see the value of love and self. Going forward, all professors must be as purposeful in their selection of texts as Professor Marlowe was. Professor Marlowe specifically chose the Epic of Sunjata in response to the Black Lives Matter movement and the current political climate in the US, as well as the Qur’an following years of war where Americans were taught that Muslims are our enemies. These texts were undoubtedly used to “approach these subjects with fresh perspectives and methods of discovery.” 

The texts read in Core 152 flowed incredibly well together as we used knowledge drawn from Homer to understand Sunjata and lessons learned from the Bible to appreciate the Qur’an. I believe professors should be mandated to teach a central text from a non-Western culture such as the Qur’an, Confucianism or Dhammapada in addition to a text relating to African American history such as the Epic of Sunjata. Professors should have some freedom to choose texts, however they should be very thematically similar to the other texts read. Professor Marlowe’s inclusion of the Qur’an and the Epic of Sunjata revolutionized the course as new perspectives were included, only furthering discussions surrounding identity. Without this inclusion, every text read in Legacies of the Ancient World would have been from the Western canon, upholding people’s complaints regarding Colgate’s core. 

The Lack of Need for Expertise

I do not believe that it matters if a professor has expertise in the specific field of added texts. As the core curriculum is inherently cross-disciplinary, professors for core classes come from all types of teaching backgrounds and thus teach material that they do not necessarily have a degree or deep expertise in. As such, adding texts that fall outside of the Western texts currently being read would not be any different. The proposed texts of the Qur’an and the Epic of Sunjata are very thematically connected to texts already taught in Legacies of the Ancient World. If professors previously had expertise in the Bible, it is likely they will have some expertise in other religious texts. 

The only way that expertise would matter would be if the added texts were entirely unrelated to the other works that were read in the course. If this were the case, these texts should not be included in the curriculum in the first place as new material should not be introduced that is unrelated to both the other texts read and the ideals of the course. There should be a system in place where professors can request guest lecturers if they feel uncomfortable teaching certain texts. These guest lecturers would be experienced in the particular field of the text being taught and would provide structure and support to the professors. 

The Merit of “Weird” Texts

I really enjoy Willow Goff’s understanding of the value of the “weird” texts that must be read in Core 151 and Core 152. After interviewing Professor Alan Cooper, she found that literature read in Challenges of Modernity and Legacies of the Ancient World should not be considered Western or Eastern but instead, as “weird” texts that both promote and contradict modern ideas of society. Goff wrote, “Instead of trying to fit the class literature into a chronological or geographical context, the books should connect to the course through their ‘weirdness.’” Texts such as the Qur’an and the Epic of Sunjata certainly classify as “weird” as they are not born out of the Western canon, yet they “offer exposure to a variety of texts and voices from a wide range of traditions” further allowing students the ability to “obtain a more comprehensive sense of how philosophical thought developed throughout the world.” Comparatively, including texts from outside the Western canon develops a student’s academic sophistication more than just Western literature.

By Leo Weiss

Hi, I am a sophomore at Colgate University with an intended major of Economics and minor in Peace and Conflict Studies. Outside of school I enjoy golfing, skiing and spending time with family and friends.