An advising workshop about Iowa State’s new international diversity requirements will be held Thursday for academic advisers and anyone else interested.

The new requirements for all students under the 1997-99 course catalog will include a three credit international diversity requirement and a three credit U.S. diversity requirement.

Under the catalog-in-effect rule, students now attending ISU can chose to use the new catalog or continue under the catalog they registered under, thereby avoiding the new requirements, said J.D. Beatty, assistant dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, who helped create the workshop together.

The new requirements will not affect students unless they choose to use the new catalog or register under the new catalog, he said.

However, if a current student decides to leave school for some reason and then returns to ISU several years later, they will not be able to use their original catalog without special permission, he said. Students can only go back two catalogs from their current enrollment.

Students will have a variety of classes to choose from to fill this requirement.

Tom Loynachan, chair of the academic affairs council, said they are not constricting students and are giving them a lot of options to choose.

Beatty estimated over 100 courses are on the approved list for the international requirement and 40 or 50 are on the U.S. list. The list is posted on the Internet at http://www.public.iastate.edu/~facsen_info/req.html.

Some students already have met the new requirements because of requirements in their majors, Beatty said. The requirements can also be applied toward general education requirements or towards electives.

“It really won’t make any difference where they are used,” he said.

The faculty approved the addition of the diversity requirements last spring.

Loynachan said they thought the new requirements would give students graduating from ISU perspectives important for their future careers.

Beatty said since we live in an increasingly global world, students now will be working with people from other nations and backgrounds and may even find themselves living in other countries in the course of their careers.

The workshop is designed to help advisers look at new rules under the new catalog. The list of approved classes will be discussed as well as how the classes will be recorded on degree audits.

A panel discussion with representatives from the Faculty Senate Curriculum Committee, the Council on International Programs, the LAS Deans Office, the Provost Office and the University Academic Advising Committee.

There will also be a question and answer session, handouts and information about courses from community colleges in Iowa that will meet these requirements.

Advisers from across campus have been invited and each department is encouraged to send representatives.

The workshop will take place at 4 p.m. in the Gallery of the Memorial Union. Everyone is welcome to attend.

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