Shannon Watkins of the Martin Center takes aim at the UNC-Chapel Hill curriculum.
Recently, a general education course at UNC-Chapel Hill, “Big-Time College Sports,” was canceled. This sparked controversy after the course’s professor, Jay Smith, argued that the class, which he had taught in previous semesters, was axed because its treatment of Chapel Hill’s recent academic/athletics scandal cast the university in a negative light.
Lost in much of the news coverage, though, was a more important consideration: should such a course be offered at all? …
… “Big-Time College Sports” is one of thousands of general education courses offered at UNC Chapel Hill in recent years. Many of those, such as “Intersectionality: Race, Gender, Sexuality, and Social Justice” and “First-Year Seminar: Issues in a World Society: Sports and Competition,” are trendy and/or activist. One reason universities provide such courses is to satisfy students’ interests. But this often comes at the expense of a more structured, rigorous curriculum.
The good news is that UNC Chapel Hill is in the process of revising its general education core, and changes are expected to take effect in 2019. The curriculum’s content will be closely examined to determine how it can better serve students in an era in which their majors won’t always determine their career trajectories. Campus leaders say they will emphasize skills such as communication and critical thinking, which should transcend specific degrees.
Unless Chapel Hill moves away from its tendency to cater to the sometimes narrow educational whims of students, however, real reform won’t occur. As a 2016-17 report on general education from the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) states, “[When] schools replace their core curricula with a ‘study-what-you-want’ philosophy, they undermine the goal of ensuring for their students a broad and coherent education….”
