Diversity / Office of the Registrar

Perspectives on Diversity Requirement

The Diversity requirement at PLU consists of eight semester hours of coursework. Four semester hours are required from Alternative Perspectives and four are required from Cross-Cultural Perspectives.

Alternative Perspectives – A

A course that creates an awareness and understanding of diversity in the United States, directly addressing issues such as ethnicity, gender, disability, racism or poverty.
Courses that meet this requirement are designated with an “A” at the end of the course title. They can be found in the PLU catalog and class schedule.

Cross-Cultural Perspectives – C
(Any one of the following completes the requirement)

A course focusing on the culture of non-Euro-American societies that has been approved to meet the Cross-Cultural requirement.
Any foreign language course (except Sign) numbered 201 or above. A course used to satisfy Option I of the College of Arts & Sciences requirement can also be used for Cross-Cultural credit.
Study through the first year (101-102) of a foreign language (other than your Entrance Language or Sign). Courses used to satisfy Option II of the College of Arts & Sciences requirement can also be used for Cross-Cultural credit.
Participation in an approved semester long study abroad program.
International student status.
Courses that meet this requirement are designated with a “C” at the end of the course title. They can be found in the PLU catalog and class schedule.

Double-Dipping

Any student that has not transferred 60 or more hours to PLU may double-dip one Diversity course with another GUR in their Core.

For example: “RELI 237: Judaism – C, R3” could be used to satisfy both the Cross-Cultural and Religion Line 3 requirements, or “ENGL 341: Feminist Approaches to Literature – A, LT” could be used to satisfy both the Alternative Perspectives and Literature requirements.

Double-dipping can only be done once and it must be between the Diversity requirement and a Core GUR. A course cannot be double-dipped to meet two Core GURs.

A course used to meet a GUR and a major/minor requirement is not considered a double-dip. There is no limit on GUR courses also used to meet a major/minor requirement.

60+ Hour Transfer Students

If you have transferred with 60 or more semester hours, you need to complete four semester hours of either Alternative Perspectives or Cross-Cultural Perspectives. These four semester hours must be completed at PLU.

The only way to meet the Diversity requirement with transfer work is to have taken at least four semester hours of Alternative Perspectives and four semester hours of Cross-Cultural Perspectives before transferring to PLU. Taking just one or the other as transfer work is not sufficient to meet the requirement.

Office of the Registrar

Diversity