Few of my fellow classmates in the 10th grade enjoyed the works of literature Mrs. Davidson made us read. Even fewer understood them.

It wasn't until I got to college that I realized only great writers and English teachers actually understand that stuff.

In high school I was equally perplexed by Mrs. Davidson's insistence on my knowing that Poe was a gambling alcoholic and the details of Hawthorne's Puritan heritage. What could that possibly have to do with the endeavors of literature?

Mrs. Davidson pointedly explained that we could not fully appreciate these literary contributions if we did not understand the individuals who were the forces behind them.

My 10th grade English book also honored Walt Whitman as America's finest poet, and Ernest Hemingway as the most influential American writer of the 20th century.

Nowhere did it mention that these men were gay.

Were I not a gay man, I probably would never have learned that either.

This is just one small example of the exclusionary structure built into our educational system. And the exclusions run the gamut of disciplines, from literature to history to science.

On Tuesday, the University's Faculty Senate took an important step forward in filling the existing educational void by passing mandatory diversity courses for all students at Penn State.

The approved legislation mandates students pass either three "diversity-focused" credits, or 12 "diversity-enhanced" credits as part of the general requirements for earning a University degree.

Opponents of the courses would have us believe that the University has overstepped its boundaries of educational guidance. Universities are for teaching and education, the argument goes.

At a University-wide teleconference on the issue last Monday, one student even claimed that while the challenging of opinions is part of education, no one should be required to undergo such a challenge.

No one should be required to have ideas challenged?

On the contrary: the challenging of ideas is exactly what universities and education are all about.

As Michael Nelson, national college coordinator at the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People headquarters in Baltimore, said, it is a matter of deciding, "What is appropriate for my education?"

Universities have always sought to offer students more than training in a skill for the sole purpose of obtaining a job. That's why, as an engineering student, I was required to take physical education, arts and humanities courses in addition to calculus and thermodynamics.

Critics of the courses have also claimed that the requirements will somehow "dilute" the University's core courses and devalue the contributions of Western civilization.

These critics have missed the essence of the diversity course requirements. They are still viewing them as an anomalous appendage to education, when in fact they are a critical link to a more complete one.

The diversity courses must be integrated into the "core" of the curriculum of the University. Students must not look at diversity in the educational process as one course or a set of courses separate from the rest of their education.

Rather, diversity must be presented as a vital ingredient of a complete education. The diversity perspective will then enrich education at the University, not dilute it.

Our society was built on, and indeed is the very embodiment, of diversity. That is one of its strengths. Acknowledging the contributions of all segments of our culture in no way minimizes the attributes of other segments. It is a tribute to our civilization in its entirety.

Elizabeth Walker, president of Penn State's student chapter of the NAACP, supports the diversity courses largely because they will encompass a wide range of groups, including African-Americans, women and gay men and lesbians.

"All these are pressing issues," she said, "especially on college campuses, because we have so many different people with so many different ideas and backgrounds. And we're all clustered together. How can you live with someone unless you know about them?"

Whether we attend the University to become writers, chemists or psychologists, we are all members of a complex and diverse society. We cannot truly call ourselves educated if we do not know about the world in which we must all live and interact.

The aim of the diversity courses is to enable us to do just that.