Texas Republicans passed a law requiring regular general education curricula reviews.
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The University of Houston System Board of Regents has approved removing about 40 percent of the courses that counted toward its flagship institution’s core curriculum requirements.
The Houston Chronicle, which reported earlier on the vote, said it obtained a list of the roughly 100 cut courses, which include Black Liberation Theology, Intro to Global Climate Change, Intro to Ethnic Studies, Intro to LGBT Studies, Intro to Women’s Studies, the Bible and Modern Pop Culture, the History of Jewish Food, Dante and His World, Greek and Roman Myths of Heroes, Entrepreneurship, Tourism, Business Law and Ethics, and more. The University of Houston's American Association of University Professors chapter provided Inside Higher Ed the same list, though the university and system spokespeople didn’t confirm or deny it.
The system did confirm that the changes, which the board approved unanimously Thursday, drop to the number of core courses students can choose from 241 to 144. The changes affect first-time students starting this fall. Many diversity-related courses will still count toward the core, including Intro to African American Studies, Introduction to Mexican American Studies and Latina/o Jewish History.
