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Diversity & Equity

AU’s Diversity & Equity—or DIV—requirement is a 3-credit course designed to be offered in the major or minor, in a Habit of Mind or as a free elective. These courses attend to issues of power, privilege, and inequality that are embedded in social, cultural, or economic hierarchies, including (but not limited to) those around race, ethnicity, class, ability, gender, and sexuality. This requirement aims to highlight our faculty expertise in these areas and underscore the university’s commitment to engaging with the larger cultural and political conversation about social equity.
Below you’ll find information about completing the DIV requirement, as well as a list of major-designated DIV courses.

Completing the DIV Requirement

  • Students satisfy the DIV requirement by completing an appropriately designated course with a grade of “C” or better.

  • Use the course list below to learn what’s been added or confirm which courses can be used to satisfy the DIV requirement. Prior iterations of approved courses will not satisfy the requirement.
  • A DIV course may concurrently satisfy other appropriately designated AU Core, major, minor, or certificate requirements.
  • Consult your own degree audit or your academic advisor to verify which courses have been used to satisfy requirements.
  • Up to two appropriately designated courses taken abroad can be used to satisfy AU Core requirements. See our Core Abroad page for additional details.
  • External credit may be used to satisfy this requirement. See our Transfer Credit page for additional information.

Diversity & Equity (DIV)

A. Describe patterns of thought or practices of historically marginalized peoples.

B. Examine how legacies or experiences of oppression and responses to them shape contemporary realities or conditions.

C. Analyze how structural inequalities shape social categories of human difference and how these constructions influence inequalities.

D. Evaluate and reflect on values, policies, or practices needed to develop a more equitable society.

Major-Designated DIV Courses

Some Academic Programs have designated specific courses that simultaneously satisfy a major requirement and the DIV requirement, while other academic programs have included one or more DIV courses as options students may complete to satisfy major electives.

Find your major on the table below to learn what DIV course(s) you can take.
If there is nothing listed for your major, you can take (in consultation with your academic advisor) any DIV course, provided you meet any prerequisites. A list of DIV courses with no prerequisites can be accessed below the table.