One year after purging its general education curriculum of hundreds of humanities and social sciences courses, UF is slowly rebuilding its offerings by adding courses from the Hamilton School for Classical and Civic Education.
Last year, faculty across Florida reviewed general education catalogs to ensure courses fell in line with a new law targeting perceived left-wing bias in higher education. The law required general education courses not distort historical events or teach “identity politics.” Additionally, humanities courses must include selections from the Western canon.
The review resulted in over 900 courses being cut from UF’s general education offerings by the time the final list came before the Florida Board of Governors for final approval in Spring 2025. This was part of an annual general education review, in which the state board must approve general education catalogs across all universities before the start of each academic year.
This year’s review was less dramatic, with just five UF courses removed and 26 added. The changes were approved at the board meeting Jan. 29.
Of the 26 general education courses added, 20 came from the Hamilton School — the university’s state-mandated civic center, founded in 2022, which teaches students “how to think, not what to think,” according to its website.
Jason Mastrogiovanni, the school’s interim associate provost for student success, said the majority of the Hamilton School’s courses are Quest courses, which are required undergraduate courses that “engage students in interdisciplinary inquiry, civic responsibility, critical thinking, and real-world engagement.”
Angela Lindner, the interim vice provost for undergraduate affairs, approached the Hamilton School while she was guiding the Quest program, Mastrogiovanni said. Lindner asked the school when it started if it wanted to provide Quest courses, many of which already satisfy humanities general education requirements.
“They were meant to be small seminars taught by faculty,” Mastrogiovanni said. “We were in the process of trying to obviously be established and start teaching courses. And when they came to us asking, it was really a good fit right away, so we went all in on it.”
Every faculty member at the Hamilton School is encouraged to write and submit his or her own Quest course, Mastrogiovanni said. There are around 45 faculty members, and at some point in their course load, each must teach a Quest course, which he said is why the school has many new general education courses this year.
Mastrogiovanni said the requirement for Western canon in general education humanities aligns with what the Hamilton School teaches.
Victoria Backherms, a 19-year-old UF American government, history, literature and law sophomore, is taking the Hamilton School’s Classics of American Thought I: English Settlement to the Civil War course.
Classics of American Thought I and II are being added as general education courses at UF for next school year.
Backherms, who plans to go to law school, said she’s taking the class because it’s a foundational course for her major.
So far, the course has covered the foundations of the American system going back to Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, she said, and has also discussed the U.S. Constitution, Bill of Rights, Federalist Papers and other related documents.
“I think that more people our age should be required to take classes related to civics education and understanding the basis for the Bill of Rights and the amendments and all the rights that we observe and get to enjoy,” Backherms said.
Backherms said she supports the Hamilton School’s emphasis on Western canon in general education, because she thinks too many students lack civic education and understanding, which she said are fundamental to being a productive member of society.
Some faculty outside the Hamilton School, meanwhile, are grappling with how to attract students now that general education designations have been removed from many of their courses.
Anna Peterson, a UF religion professor who teaches Environmental Values and Practice along with ethics and Latin American religion and politics courses, said students have little room in their schedules for religion courses.
When there were more religion courses that fulfilled the requirements to be a general education humanities course, students had more motivation to take those courses because they satisfied the requirement.
“So many people, students, have told me, ‘I'm going to be a better doctor because of this class,’” Peterson said. “‘Because I never thought about religion before in terms of how it affects how I treat my patients, and what I need to know about my patients, and how my patients are thinking about their treatment and their health.’”
Three international credit hours are required in UF’s general education curriculum. The international requirement must be earned simultaneously with a course classified in another general education category. So, general education international courses also fulfill either a social science or humanities requirement, according to UF’s general education catalog.
If a humanities course does not include Western canon, it can lose its humanities designation, Peterson said. Because the international requirement is fulfilled alongside a humanities requirement, a course that does not engage Western canon and loses its humanities designation would also lose its international designation.
Peterson said there’s now fear due to declining enrollment in religion courses. But the lower enrollment numbers may not be entirely caused by the curriculum changes.
Mario Poceski, a professor and chair of UF’s Department of Religion, said enrollment numbers tend to fluctuate from year to year, and numbers are lower in the Department of Religion this semester than in the past.
“Some of the worries that faculty have might be, in some instances, be a little bit overblown,” Poceski said.
Poceski and others in his department had to adjust their courses to meet the Western canon requirement, he said. He also adjusted the syllabus for his introduction to Buddhism course to emphasize the interactions between Buddhism and the West to keep its general education status.
German-Swiss author Hermann Hesse’s novel “Siddhartha” is one example of how Poceski uses Western works to teach about a religion mainly practiced in Asia.
Poceski said because the decision was made by the state, faculty members have to come to terms with that and try to implement the requirements the best they can while also keeping their students’ best interests in mind.
“The most important thing is to try to serve our students and give them a well-rounded education to the best of our abilities,” Poceski said.
Contact Cameron Countryman at ccountryman@alligator.org. Follow her on X @cpcountryman.
Cameron Countryman is a second-year journalism major and The Alligator's Spring 2026 Graduate School reporter. In her free time, she enjoys reading, paddle boarding and researching her next travel destination.
