An oral history with Jason Nice, the Chico State General Education Honors Program director, author, and curriculum activist. This was conducted for Preserving Chico State Voices for Change; an oral history project for California State University, Chico. This interview was conducted to collect information about curriculum changes geared toward including ethnic studies and understanding the importance of it. This interview was conducted in order to complete our semester-long project in our Honors Ethnic Studies (HNRS 300) course. This interview includes information about how Dr. Jason Nice has advocated for an ethnic-based curriculum and includes it in higher education as well as looks into the past of general education.
This discussion delved into the great importance of general education throughout higher education and why it is so important to learn and be taught about ethnic studies. Dr. Nice explained how general education brings students together and helps us to understand each other’s differences. In doing this, he tied in history relating to different college campuses and how their implementations of ethnic-based curriculum has helped to widen the open-mindedness of students across the nation. One prime example he described was the founding of the College of Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State University in 1969, which is the same college that his daughter currently attends. When asked if he believes Chico State is heading in the same direction, he explained how we have made great progress by establishing a multicultural and gender studies major that collaborates with the Honors program. He is hopeful that aspects of ethnic studies can be included in every area of general education as well as having their own courses and possibly their own college in the future.
It also includes information about Dr. Nice’s experience abroad and his knowledge of higher education in Europe. It includes the differences between Universities in the United States and the United Kingdom. Along with this information, we discussed the novel that he is currently working on writing about the journey of the curriculum throughout the years, starting in the Renaissance. We discuss how it is about the continuing fight for an ethnic-based curriculum.
