Governor Spencer Cox recently signed Senate Bill 334, which established the Center for Civic Excellence at Utah State University on Mar. 25.
The bill places the center in charge of curating all general education courses at Utah State University.
The bill is tied closely to House Bill 381, which was also approved last month. H.B. 381 will now require all Utah high school students to pass a yearlong citizenship course as part of their graduation requirements.
In his statement, Governor Cox referred to H.B. 381 and S.B. 334 as “the most important bills of the 2025 legislative session.”
S.B. 334 establishes the Center for Civic Excellence as a pilot program, set to take effect on May 7. Utah State University students will be required to take a year-and-a-half-long course in Western civilization, along with an additional course in American civics.
The center's mission includes engaging students in “civil and rigorous intellectual inquiry, ensuring exposure to foundational texts and cultivating habits of mind that promote civil discourse and critical thinking.”
While USU has been established as the focus of the program, the center is directed to provide recommendations to the Utah Board of Higher Education with the aim of expanding the program to the public higher education system statewide before 2029.
“This center will be tasked with building out a general education curriculum focused on viewpoint diversity, civil discourse and helping our students develop the analytical skills necessary to contribute in the public square," Cox said. "This curriculum will be a model for all our public institutions in Utah and nationally."
However, the bill has its critics. Shane Graham, an English professor at Utah State University, expressed frustration over the speedy passage of S.B. 334 and the lack of data and consultation available to support it.
“It’s hard to imagine how forcing students to read Boethius — as the bill specifically calls for — will improve USU’s retention statistics or students’ career readiness,” Graham said.
Instead of combing through hundreds of course options to satisfy their general education requirements, USU students will all take the same classes. The responsibility of determining the curriculum will fall on the center, not the university faculty.
The bill is aimed at taking a more classic liberal education approach currently taken by Columbia University and Harvard. The center will have students engaged primarily in texts from Western civilization: “the rise of Christianity, medieval Europe, the Renaissance, the Enlightenment and post-Enlightenment.”
Students will be required to read Homer, ancient Greek philosophy, substantial selections from the Bible, Shakespeare, Jane Austen and Frederick Douglass, along with broader courses on American history, civics and literature.
By focusing study on “the best of what has been thought and said,” the center aims to ensure that all graduates have the opportunity to engage in great debates and the enduring ideas that continue to shape the modern western world.
The program will be implemented into the curriculum by fall semester 2026.