The Daily Bulletin Archive

The college’s newest minor program, the study of understanding community, diversity, and peace (the peace minor), grew from the dedicated work of the committee of the same name.

Approved by President Muriel Howard and initiated and coordinated by Jean F. Gounard, the committee’s first effort was the inaugural Peace Conference, a half-day program in October 2002 dedicated to promoting peace and accepting diversity. The event has grown into an annual daylong conference featuring renowned speakers, authors, and United Nations officials.

Gounard, director of the International Student Affairs Office and adjunct professor of educational foundations, as well as several members of the committee, including Kim Irvine, chair and professor of geography and planning, and Carmen Iannaccone, professor emeritus of exceptional education, have been instrumental in bringing about the new minor.

“People have to learn to work together in peace and harmony,” Gounard said. “We have to teach the next generation.”

The minor is offered through the Geography and Planning Department, but it draws course offerings from 23 academic departments. Its proponents note that while helping others may improve the world, propagating peace demands a thorough understanding of how to create it.

The 21-credit minor offers students an opportunity to examine the world and themselves through two required components. The first component, foundations of understanding peace, focuses on moral and ethical development of tolerance and peacefulness as necessary building blocks toward peace. The second component focuses on the social aspects of peace, including community, diversity, and science and the environment. It also includes social analysis to enable students to understand and apply principles that support community, diversity, and peace. A field experience, which may be local, regional, national, or international, caps the minor.

Patrick McGovern, assistant professor of political science, teaches one of the required courses, Democracy and Peace: The Urban Experience. It is a service-learning course that explores the intersection of democracy and the urban experience, allowing students to understand how democracy works within the context of a community. “We try to unpack the notion of democracy,” said McGovern, “and look at what it takes to achieve it, including education and peace.”