The Assembly’s higher education reporter, Erin Gretzinger, recently interviewed Jenna Robinson, president of the Martin Center, about ongoing debates in North Carolina over general education requirements and recent moves to scale back DEI mandates in the UNC System. Robinson explained her role in co-authoring model legislation, the General Education Act, which seeks to “resuscitate the humanities” by replacing today’s scattered distribution requirements with a curriculum rooted in the great works and traditions of Western and American thought. She noted that the goal is not to exclude perspectives, but to anchor general education in enduring ideas rather than fleeting trends.
Robinson also addressed critiques that Western civilization courses promote conservative-coded ideals, countering that the tradition is best understood as an ongoing debate—the “Great Conversation”—about the human condition. She argued that such courses can and should evolve to incorporate new voices, including women and minorities, as they become part of the intellectual canon. At the state level, she pointed to the proposed NC REACH Act and the UNC System’s new Foundations in American Democracy curriculum as positive steps toward strengthening civic knowledge. Too many college graduates, she warned, lack even basic civic literacy: “Students can’t name the father of the Constitution. They can’t name three branches of government. They don’t know who the chief justice is.”
On the UNC System’s suspension of DEI-related requirements, Robinson reiterated the Martin Center’s long-standing position that mandatory DEI coursework does not belong in general education. She cautioned that some programs, like UNC-Chapel Hill’s “power, difference, and inequality” capacity, still function as DEI requirements under another name and should be reevaluated. At the same time, she emphasized that area studies can and should be taught without an ideological overlay, focusing instead on empirical or cultural knowledge.
To read the full interview with Jenna Robinson, visit The Assembly.