<\/p>\n
University of Texas President Jim Davis gives the annual State of the University Address to an audience seated in Hogg Auditorium, Oct. 21, 2026. At the address, Davis announced the creation of the new University College.<\/p>\n
Sara Diggins\/Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n
The University of Texas\u00a0promised its new core\u00a0curriculum will prepare 10,000 Longhorns a year for civic and professional success in place of the current \u201cgrab bag\u201d system of requirements. On Wednesday, President Jim Davis announced a new college to protect those new standards<\/a>.<\/p>\n Devin Stauffer, a longtime government and philosophy professor at the University of Texas who has authored books on Plato and Thomas Hobbes, will become the dean of UT\u2019s new University College\u00a0<\/a>this January.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Stauffer served as the chair of the task force that designed UT\u2019s new core curriculum,<\/a> which is set to roll out in fall 2028.\u00a0<\/p>\n On Thursday, he said the new college will approve all courses that count toward UT\u2019s new core; fundraise to support the courses, research and professors; and house the Center for Humanities, which had been set up under the provost\u2019s office<\/a>. The center had initially been billed as a home for new hires teaching core humanities courses.<\/p>\n Unlike UT\u2019s other 17 colleges, University College will not offer majors. Instead, it will work as a \u201cnexus for the whole university,\u201d approving and overseeing undergraduate requirements to ensure UT\u2019s core standards stay specific and rigorous, Stauffer said.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s very to be determined how large this college will be, how much it will do, its own hiring, and how much it will just facilitate what\u2019s being done in other units,\u201d Stauffer said. \u201cAs the dean of this new college, I\u2019m going to cooperate with people all over the university. We\u2019re going to need each other.\u201d<\/p>\n Davis announced the new college during his state of the university address last week. He said it will oversee and act as a guardian of UT\u2019s new core curriculum, which Stauffer said will be piloted next year and launch as soon as 2028. The new core reworks what all undergraduate students must learn across three categories: arts and humanities, STEM and social sciences.<\/p>\n The reform has been a hallmark of Davis\u2019 presidency, driven by his goal of graduating students with an essential, shared foundation of knowledge. Davis has spoken about the need to balance and broaden courses and degree programs to restore public trust in UT, improve civil discourse and student values.<\/p>\n The new college\u00a0\u2014 which does not yet have a known budget or physical home\u00a0\u2014 will have three committees to review core courses to see if they meet the requirements. The college will also establish guidelines for what classes the core topic areas should include, such as lessons related to a list of 100 \u201cgreat thinkers\u201d throughout time.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n When asked to lead the core curriculum task force a year ago, Stauffer did not imagine the work would lead to a new college. Now, he believes it is necessary to guide, enact and preserve the new core.<\/p>\n Because Davis\u2019s core model is a ground-up rebuild from the university\u2019s prior core, faculty must submit course proposals to count toward one of the 12 new course requirements. UT will need hundreds of course sections to serve 10,000 students a year\u00a0\u2014 a \u201cmath problem\u201d the college will be in charge of solving, Stauffer said.<\/p>\n It won\u2019t just be the University College that teaches the new classes. Stauffer, who currently works in the College of Liberal Arts, said he wants to \u201cbuild as much connective tissue between COLA and this new unit\u201d as possible, through joint hires and recruiting liberal arts professors to design and teach requirements.<\/p>\n Have an education question? Submit it below, and one of our reporters will get back to you.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Controversy with the new core<\/p>\n After Davis announced the college\u2019s creation, UT\u2019s chapter of the American Association of University Professors condemned it as a \u201cyet another example of a decision of enormous consequence for students\u2019 education being made quickly, from the top, and without meaningful faculty governance or student consultation.\u201d The AAUP is a national professor\u2019s union with 2,600 Texas members.<\/p>\n To prepare for the new core, UT\u2019s provost office cut dozens of Department of Social and Cultural Analysis courses<\/a> from counting toward the requirements. The department was created when the university consolidated existing ethnic and gender studies departments this fall<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n AAUP chapter officials said losing the core designation and majors will gut enrollment in the department\u2019s classes, starving the fields at the state\u2019s flagship institution.<\/p>\n But the new core is meant to be focused and foundational, not reflective of professors\u2019 research interests, Stauffer said. The strict guidelines are not meant to exclude perspectives or push a political agenda, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not trying to create liberal students. We\u2019re not trying to create conservative students,\u201d Stauffer said. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to create better educated students.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n