Folklore and Politics in, and of, General Education Requirements at Universities in the United States

Abstract Florida Senate Bill 266 set a legal precedent in 2023 by establishing governmental controls on the process by which general education is managed by universities in the United States. It limited the ability of universities to include principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in general education requirements and instituted other limitations on the offering of courses and programs related to “identity politics.” This essay reviews the repercussions of such legal efforts to not only change general education in the United States but also to alter the dominant educational philosophy of “the liberal and human tradition” of colleges and universities toward one of vocational ends. As a case study, the essay discusses the author's experience as Dean of a College of General Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in a process of general education reform pushed by legislators and employers as well as internal oppositional pressure from faculty members and students. Based on this experience, the author advocates for emphasizing the past and future as well as the ethnographic present in their many social and cultural forms that demonstrate the altruistic function of higher education to be community engaged, globally aware, leadership minded, and—most of all—innovative. Thus, general education might be reimagined beyond a means to “make a living,” to connected learning that provides a cultural and intellectual foundation for living.