Anne Kooiker / Winonan

Winona State University is unveiling a minor for students interested in ethnic studies.

The introduction course will be offered fall 2016, but students will not be able to declare it as a minor until 2017.

According to Fredrick Lee, director of the new program, many colleges in the U.S. have ethnic studies programs because of a diversity has become a priority on the campuses.

“It will give us a focus on campus, and one of the big issues we are looking at in every campus is diversity and inclusion,” Lee said.

The minor will consist of 21 credits. Twelve of the credits are required, meaning students can take three courses outside the mandatory classes.

The plan for the program is partially set in stone according to Winona State’s guidelines, but Lee also said he hopes for some flexibility because it is a new program.

“We are going to try to work closely with the KEAP Center on campus,” Lee said. “I think that is really good, and as we go along we want to have a website, facebook, cost centers. So some of this is not trial and error, but it’s taking these steps one at a time.”

Logistics aside, according to professor Linda D’Amico, diversity is very important to learn about, and an ethnic studies program will help create an environment to encourage equality.

“We are really fortunate to live in such a dynamic country with people from all over the world, and it’s a real opportunity to be right here and open up ourselves to the world.” D’Amico said, “So it’s just like opening up our understanding of the world like opening up a rich fountain of knowledge.”

For incoming students, Lee said he thinks the new program could be a helpful factor for choosing Winona State as a school to attend, especially students of color.

“The people I am working with have a lot of enthusiasm for it. We want to have a guest speaker program, write grants. We want to grow the program, hire faculty to teach in the program and hopefully one day it will be a standalone program, it will actually become a major,” Lee said.

For the introductory course, the goal is to introduce topics and minority groups relating to ethnic studies, and then the classes can be divided up into the three main minority groups in the U.S.: African Americans, Asian Americans and Latin Americans.

D’Amico, who created the capstone project for the program, said she is fortunate to be a part of that aspect of the program.

“I feel really privileged to be a part of it especially because this will be like the project at the end that students do that has both research as well as outreach civic engagement involved,” D’Amico said.

Lee said the main goal behind the program as a whole is to attract more diverse students to Winona State’s campus.

Lee said, “I think there is several ways one could rationally defend an ethnic studies program, and I think for me, as a person of color, one thing I want to do is give Winona a higher profile for people of color so they would consider coming down here to go to school.”