As the University begins to implement required cultural diversity courses, faculty members and administrators say they are more concerned about achieving up-to-date scholarship and sensitive teaching, rather than lack of funding.

Discussions for appointing the committee to establish course criteria, describing the role of the part-time program coordinator and implementing possible summer courses in 1991 are now underway, said C. Gregory Knight, University vice provost and dean for undergraduate education.

Funding is expected in July after the University Board of Trustees approve the University budget, said William C. Richardson, University executive vice president and provost.

A Faculty Senate committee estimated costs for resources at $50,000 per year for the next five years. Although the program has priority, the University has not determined the amount of money it will devote to resources during the 1990-1991 academic year, Richardson said.

The budget will contain money for resources, support personnel and faculty workload, he said.

Under the requirement passed by the Faculty Senate last week, undergraduates will have to pass three credits of "diversity" courses concentrating on racial, ethnic, gender, religious, sexual orientation issues or 12 credits of "diversity enhanced" courses devoting at least 25 percent of their time to these issues. Associate degree students opting for enhanced courses need to pass six credits.

The courses intend to sensitize students to the concerns of underrepresented groups, said Robert Melton, member of the senate subcommittee on culture and race diversity.

But the concept of sensitization is difficult to place in a course criteria, Melton said.

To increase sensitivity among faculty members several workshops are planned, said Jerry Covert, associate dean for undergraduate education.

The criteria will be essential in challenging students to question their assumptions about other people, said Lynn Goodstein, director of women studies and James Stewart, director of black studies.

Courses should recognize the value of different peoples' contributions to society and analyze the reasons differences lead to varying levels of societal power, Goodstein said.

Diversity material should not be treated as supplementary but rather incorporated into the structure of the course, Stewart said.

The use of up-to-date scholarship in the fields of women and black studies is important to the success of the requirement, he said. Many courses currently in existence would appear to be diversity-enhanced but are really using out-dated material, he said.

Training faculty, hiring a part-time coordinator and teaching a wider range of courses at commonwealth campuses also are needed for full implementation, said Felix Lukezic, chairman of the Faculty Senate committee on undergraduate instruction.

Offering diversity courses at all campuses is also a great concern, Lukezic said.

Currently all 19 commonwealth campuses offer a women studies course and six offer black studies courses.

The women studies and black studies departments will work with other departments at the University, particularly the commonwealth campuses, to inform faculty about recent scholarship in these fields, said Goodstein.

Additional pay for faculty experts in curriculum integration is expected to be available to help other faculty develop diversity courses, Knight said. A Faculty Senate committee estimated these costs at $20,000 per year for the next five years.

Black studies is working on developing teleconference classrooms to link University Park instructors with the other campuses, Stewart said.