There is no similar category in the community college articulation agreement. There is some sentiment that if diversity issues are not addressed in their own category, but are to be integrated into all courses, then they never really get addressed in any courses. It gives students exposure to cultural and diversity issues. It allows different departments to be involved in General education, when they might not be so involved in more conventional categories in perspectives, or in the core. We need a way to accommodate some departments in general education, such as the foreign languages, which do not fit into a more conventional category.
Comparative cultures allows a context for sense of place, in terms of culture.
Bruce Henderson reminded us that Literature has not been addressed in any of our categories. We do not yet have a rationale to make it a special case. Literature does appear in the community college transfer agreement, and most of the state schools have a literature requirement. It is difficult to justify one such extra requirement, and having several makes for a very convoluted program. Advisors will be confused, and problems at graduation time will proliferate.