A Utah lawmaker is pushing to overhaul required general education coursework for college students, shifting the focus back, he says, to great books “predominantly from Western civilization” and about “the rise of Christianity.”
The measure from Sen. John Johnson, R-North Ogden, proposes opening a new center at Utah State University — where the lawmaker is also an emeritus professor — to study how best to redirect curriculum in that direction and then apply the changes to all public universities statewide.
“One of the problems with general education is it’s expanded to the point where it doesn’t even make sense as the core,” Johnson said. “This is an attempt to change the model.”
His measure gained initial committee approval Wednesday on a 5-1 vote, with the lone Democrat on the Senate Education Committee opposed. It moves next to the full Senate for a vote.
The bill, SB334, is a revised version of a similar but more controversial measure that Johnson ran last year. It was ultimately killed in committee in the final days of the session.
His previous attempt, Johnson acknowledged Wednesday, was well-meaning but “very prescriptive” — and he regretted it. That measure was aimed specifically at the University of Utah, which legislative leaders in the state say has gotten too progressive, and would have forced the flagship school to establish an independent School of General Education to instruct all students for their required introductory coursework.
It followed a similar set of topics, but listed even more specifics on how many courses a student should take, what years of history they should cover and included very little from viewpoints outside of Western, largely white European tradition.
U. President Taylor Randall spoke against that measure during its sole committee hearing, saying 85% of what Johnson wanted was already included in the U.’s general education curriculum. And the Utah System of Higher Education issued a rare rebuke, saying that lawmakers should work directly with university and college presidents to solve concerns.
“I guess I have a tendency sometimes to drop a big bomb,” Johnson said Wednesday.
This year, Johnson said, he’s worked directly with USU on the bill and has the support of Harrison Kleiner, the school’s vice provost over undergraduate education, who joined the senator on Wednesday to present SB334. Kleiner said the northern Utah school has already been looking into how to reform its general education classes.
That’s the coursework required for all college students, regardless of major, meant to introduce them broadly to different subjects — from history to English to math. It also is meant to teach students the basics for academia and, generally, life: how to write, analyze texts, think critically, act ethically, collaborate and be informed citizens.
Kleiner said those classes have lost focus — in most schools in the country, along with Utah — and no longer include the foundations that he believes they should and what Johnson has spelled out in the bill.
“It’s broken,” Kleiner said. “And it’s not serving our students well.”
Kleiner said schools have moved to a “distribution” model that includes thousands of classes students can choose from that often don’t focus on those core subjects. Johnson said one university in the state — he declined to specify which — offers 1,200 courses to satisfy the general education requirements.
And the senator doesn’t think students are getting out of them what they should, like how to become thinking and contributing persons in society.
What would the bill require?
SB334 wants classes to be “classically liberal.” That includes an education that will “emphasize foundational thinking and communication skills through engagement with primary texts predominantly from Western civilization, such as: the intellectual contributions of ancient Israel, ancient Greece, and Rome; and the rise of Christianity, medieval Europe, the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, and post-Enlightenment.”
Where the previous bill didn’t, this measure does include a few individuals of color among the authors who should be studied: “Homer, Plato, Aristotle, Lao Tzu, Cicero, Maimonides, Boethius, Shakespeare, Mill, Woolf and Achebe.”
And it then instructs that classwork should also focus on American democracy by studying “the Magna Carta, the United States Constitution, the Federalist Papers; and material from thinkers, such as Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, Adam Smith, John Locke, Montesquieu, and Alexis de Tocqueville.”
Johnson has also been a strong proponent this session in protecting the liberal arts, in the face of budget cuts from the Legislature to reduce low-enrollment programs at the state’s eight public colleges and universities.
Sen. Kathleen Riebe, D-Cottonwood Heights, brought up that effort, though, to question why this bill should move forward when the state is looking at cutting majors and general education requirements were already reduced by the Utah Board of Education to a maximum of 30 hours.
Johnson said the bill can still transform what is offered and give it a direction.
Kleiner said he also believed more focused general education coursework would help students understand better what they should be learning. And that might help, he said, with retaining students in the first few years of college when they’re usually taking those classes.
The current system prompts disinterest, he said, and “encourages a ‘check the box and get it over with’ mindset.”
He believes Utah could be at the forefront of general education reform through the efforts.
That was once the case, decades ago, at the University of Utah.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Jack Newell in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024.
Jack Newell was the dean of liberal education there, starting in 1974. He worked hard, he previously told The Salt Lake Tribune, to reshape what was offered in general education courses and give those classes meaning. By 1980, the U.S. Department of Education named the U.’s program one of the top 10 for undergraduates nationwide in championing liberal arts.
But the reforms he put into place began to erode as soon as he returned to teaching in 1990. And by last year, Newell said, the last of his efforts had been erased, “including changing the name of undergraduate requirements back to general education.”
There’s been fear among faculty this year that the arts and humanities aren’t valued by state leaders, who have been more focused on market measures of college degrees, such as wage outcomes and job placement.
Who supports the measure?
Only one person spoke against the bill during public comment. Julie Jackson, who identified herself as a mother of three, said she felt like the measure was “overreach” by the Legislature where universities should be setting the course.
She also said she felt the listed authors and seminal texts lacked viewpoint diversity.
“It’s missing Ancient China, the Incans and the Mayans and other points of view and wisdom,” she said.
Eight individuals spoke in favor of the measure, largely representing ultra-conservative groups in the state.
“I’ve been increasingly alarmed at the cracks I’m seeing in our constitutional republic,” said Maryann Christensen, with the Utah Eagle Forum, Utah Legislative Watch and Citizens for Strong Families. “We don’t even understand what a republic is any more.”
She believes students need a better foundational understanding of American government and civics.
Corinne Johnson, the founder and president of Utah Parents United, said she was recently disappointed her kids weren’t reading the great classics of literature in class, but were instead listening to podcasts.
Gayle Ruzicka, president of the Utah Eagle Forum, said she wanted her daughter to get a “classical education,” but didn’t feel like the universities in the state offered that. Her daughter ended up enrolling at Hillsdale College, a small, Christian, classical liberal arts college in Michigan.
There also wasn’t a fiscal note attached to the bill when it passed out of committee, and Johnson didn’t immediately have a price estimation.
He said Gov. Spencer Cox made a similar proposal in his budget for $2 million.
A cost for the measure will be added to the bill in the coming days.
Kleiner said USU needs the support from the Legislature to move forward in its efforts to reform general education with the proposed Center for Civic Excellence.
He added: “We’re eager to engage in this kind of reform.”
(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) The Old Main building at Utah State University in Logan on Saturday, Feb. 8, 2025.
