How Solid Is The University’s Core?

RALEIGH — The study of Western civilization used to be a rite of passage for the university-educated. Now it is an afterthought at best, consigned to the shadows of the curriculum as universities pursue trendy multiculturalism. And the reaction to a proposal to bring Western civilization back shows how feared the liberating study is by campus radicals. In North Carolina, 36 percent of the 11 UNC schools surveyed still require a course in Western history or Western civilization. But about 64 percent require a multicultural or cultural diversity course. A recent study declared this finding “at best a sign of interest in non-Western cultures, but all too often an exercise in politically correct ‘education.’”