Getting courses included in college general-education requirements is how fringe academic departments with few majors justify their existence.
To justify its roster of professors, the department needs enrollments, which it gets by mounting “Introduction to Queer Theory,” “Fashion, Gender, and Identity,” and 62 other courses that satisfy general education requirements. Without that benefit, few students would sign up and the department would fold.
Some states are beginning to do something about this problem. Utah and Iowa have sought to return gen ed to its traditional mission. At Utah State University, the entire general education program is now handled by the new Center for Civic Excellence, whose American Institutions category contains only three courses. At the University of Iowa all students next year will have to take one course in U.S. history and one in civics, both handled by the new Center for Intellectual Freedom. Lawmakers are exercising their rightful power to set gen ed policy.