The University of Texas at Austin will have a new University College to oversee its recently announced new core curriculum, which sets mandatory foundational courses all undergraduate students must complete.
UT President Jim Davis announced during his State of the University address Wednesday that government professor Devin Stauffer has been appointed as the dean for the new college. Stauffer led the 22-member faculty task force that reviewed courses and recommended specifics for the new core curriculum, which is set to become mandatory by 2028.
"I hope that this core can be a kind of model for core curricula across the country," Stauffer said. "What I'm really hoping is that there can be a sense among faculty and among students that UT is taking this part of undergraduate education more seriously than it ever has."
The new college will house the Center for Humanities, which quietly opened this fall to focus on the core curriculum. The university has given little information on why the center was created or how it will interact with the existing Humanities Institute at the College of Liberal Arts. Stauffer said new core requirements have a focus on humanities and the Center of Humanities will help carry the load of teaching those courses.
The old core curriculum had grown to over 1,000 courses. Stauffer said the new one will have far less. A report with recommendations from the task force, which was made public in August, said the previous core was a "set of random boxes to be checked" and not a set of knowledge "educated human beings should know."
Many courses did not make the new list, including courses on gender and sexuality studies, "Slavery and its legacies," "LGBTQ Literature/culture" and "Intro to African American Women's History." The changes have been criticized by some faculty who say the new core curriculum limits intellectual diversity and focuses on content rather than on skills.
Stauffer said all perspectives are welcome but some restrictions had to be put in place to create a more coherent curriculum.
"Part of it was that we thought that the principle of professor choice to teach whatever they want based on their narrow research interests had gone too far," he said. "So we were trying to rein that back in, but we're not trying to exclude any perspectives from it."
Changes also included reducing the number of credit hours required for the core curriculum from 42 to 36, and narrowed classes to three categories: Arts and Humanities, Social Sciences, and STEM. By law, state universities in Texas must have core curriculums of no less than 42 semester credit hours. Stauffer said the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board is currently redoing the requirements for the state law.
"So one of the bureaucratic complexities that's going on right now is coordinating our transition with their transition, and so we're trying to do that," he said. "That problem is going to be ironed out, but it's going to probably be a two- or three-year process of ironing out."
Courses for the new curriculum will begin to be available Fall of 2027 through existing faculty. The new core curriculum is yet to be approved by the UT System Board of Regents and the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.
Stauffer said it's still to be determined where the new college will be located or how large it will be. He said as UT unfolds its new core curriculum, the University College will work along with other colleges to teach those courses and will hire accordingly to fill in the gaps. He said currently they have 1,200 applications to teach the core courses.
Erasing institutional knowledge
University officials have been criticized by students and faculty for a lack of transparency. Since Davis took office, the flagship campus has consolidated departments, created the School of Civic Leadership, eliminated majors, and appointed new deans, all without faculty and students' input.
Now, with the creation of the new college, some faculty say the new college is duplicating something that already existed.
The college that used to oversee the core curriculum, the School of Undergraduate Studies, was silently folded into the provost's office in 2025. Some faculty worry that starting a new college that does the same as the previous one will lead to the loss of institutional knowledge and memory.
Pauline Strong, a Native American Indigenous Studies professor and member of the American Association of University Professors, said the history of the university is being erased.
"Setting up the University College is restoring something that was ended. But of course, when it was ended, many, many staff lost their jobs, people with years of experience working in undergraduate education," Strong said. "So, this is a wholesale replacement of a college by a new college."
In a written statement, the AAUP said Wednesday that the new core curriculum centers Western Civilization, ill-preparing students for an increasingly globalized workplace. The group said duplicating a college that already existed is "inefficient, wasteful and another example of poor management."
The association also said appointing Stauffer as dean without any public search process or consultation with the UT community is disrespectful of faculty expertise. University leaders have appointed at least five deans this year without input from faculty.
Stauffer said since he was the head of the new curriculum task force, his appointment was "an extension" of his work.
Davis has repeatedly said UT officials are making changes to ensure a "balanced learning experience" for all students.
Students and faculty protest
During his speech Wednesday, Davis said UT Austin is a university of "first class" with all-time high numbers of applicants and students. He said the university has more financial support than ever from donors and research funding is on track to be $1.5 billion this year.
Davis did not address changes that have impacted students, like consolidating majors, or recent hate speech rhetoric by a guest speaker on campus and politicians. In September, railroad commissioner candidate Bo French posted a photo of South Asian students saying "the problem is now obviously far worse than anyone imagined." Earlier this month, far-right podcaster Myron Gaines made racist and misogynist remarks while visiting campus.
After Davis' speech, the Black UT student coalition Not Our Texas held a demonstration outside of Hogg Memorial Auditorium. Students said they were disappointed that, while free speech is legal, UT officials had failed to protect every student at the university. They said they would've liked Davis to acknowledge the problems they face.
"By not acknowledging that this is a problem on campus, you're allowing it to continue. And he's not addressing the direct racism," said Nealah Ferris, a physics and space sciences student. "He's not addressing the everyday facts that this is something that they allowed on campus. And they allowed it to turn into a big deal. And they're not doing anything about it."
Ferris questioned how UT's research benefits minority students. She said Black, South Asian and Hispanic students have been left to fend for themselves after the university dismantled resources that were specifically for them as part of compliance with SB17, which banned diversity, equity and inclusion programs at public universities.
"I think that all of that just trickled down to students being left vulnerable, and we should never have to walk on a campus unsure of who's going to protect us," Ferris said.
To comply with new state laws, since 2024, UT has dissolved faculty advisory bodies, limited "controversial topics" in the classroom, and made it easier for presidents to axe programs and get rid of positions within those programs without faculty input.
Faculty and students from consolidated departments and majors have also been holding 15-minute protests outside of the UT tower every day for the last month. They walk in silence with signs that read "We mourn the loss of American studies" and "Join us and walk against censorship."
Editor's note: KUT journalists are University of Texas employees. Editorial decisions are made independently by the KUT newsroom. University leaders do not review or approve KUT's news coverage.
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