On Nov. 19, the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin (UW) System approved a new policy regarding general education requirements for all UW campuses.
This policy was first established in the 2025 Wisconsin Act 15, which the Wisconsin State Legislature approved on July 3, 2025.
Section 134 in state statute 36.11 (3)(b) was amended to state that “no later than September 1, 2026, all credits for core general education courses, as defined in s. 36.31 (2m) (a) 2., are transferable between institutions within the system and satisfy general education requirements at the receiving institution.”
Core general education requirements (CGER) are the courses outside of a student’s major and minor requirements needed for graduation.
The policy has established CGER as six broad categories with requirements of at least 10-12 courses and 30-36 credit hours. Each UW campus will now set its own policy that fits within these guidelines.
For UW-Eau Claire, CGER will replace liberal education (LE) requirements and standardize course categories across the 13 UWs to “ensure transferability.”
The new policy only applies to undergraduate students who first enroll for the fall 2026 semester, although currently enrolled students may now choose to follow the CGER framework instead of the LE framework they began with.
The six CGER broad categories are mathematics and quantitative reasoning, communication and literacy, social and behavioral sciences, humanities and arts, natural science and wellness and civics and perspectives. UWs will not be able to add additional categories.
Interim Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Mary Hoffman said this policy will change certain UW-Eau Claire graduation requirements. Creativity (S3), Integration (I1) and Community-Engaged Learning (CEL) do not fit within the CGER categories.
“We’ve had to give up creativity, which is unfortunate,” Hoffman said. “But as we move forward, I think we’ll be mindful about how creativity permeates all of the categories or can permeate all the categories. How integration can permeate all those categories.”
According to Hoffman, UW-Eau Claire’s current Equity, Diversity and Inclusivity (R1), Global Perspectives (R2) and Civic and Environmental Issues (R3) outcomes will not remain as distinct outcomes. Rather, she said those courses will be placed within the new civics and perspectives category and still be taught.
Hoffman said UW-Eau Claire had a general education system until about 10 years ago, when the transition to the current LE system was established. She said the process took about 10 years to complete, whereas the current transition from LE to CGER will need to happen in about six months.
Although the policy must still go through legislative review by the Joint Committee on Employment Relations (JCOER), Hoffman said the university has already been working on the transition.
According to Hoffman, the University Liberal Education Committee (ULEC) is responsible for designating UW-Eau Claire’s courses within the new CGER categories. The committee’s proposed framework was approved by the University Senate and signed by the chancellor. It is now being reviewed by departments. The new catalog will be released in August 2026.
Hoffman said one challenge has been deciding which category to place courses that had two different learning outcomes in the LE system.
“A social science (course) with equity, diversity and inclusion — where does that go in the new system? Does it go in civics and perspectives or does it go in social science?” Hoffman said. “Those are sort of questions that departments are grappling with.”
Peter Hart-Brinson, a UW-Eau Claire sociology professor, is president of the United Faculty and Staff union on campus, which is part of the Wisconsin American Federation of Teachers (AFT). He said that several University Senates at UW campuses — including UW-Eau Claire — initially opposed the Board of Regents’ proposal.
Now that the GE policy has been officially approved by the Board of Regents, Hart-Brinson said he believes it is a “done deal” and is not aware of any further action being taken to oppose it. However, he said there are still concerns about the policy’s long-term impact.
“Departments are talking about what the impact is going to be on enrollment in specific courses,” Hart-Brinson said. “Some folks are worried that certain courses won’t be able to be offered as often or that not as many people will enroll in certain courses.”
Michael Hansen, a third-year English student and the Student Senate Intergovernmental Affairs Intern, said he learned about Act 15 and the CGER policy through presentations and teach-ins on campus. He then informed students about it during the campus-wide open forum.
“(Students) should be aware of anything this major that affects their school, just on principle,” Hansen said. “For a solid amount of our student populace, it’s looking like Armageddon. It’s going to change a lot of stuff. I think that’s why students really need to know about it.”
Hansen said he agrees there are aspects of the transferability process that could be reformed but doesn’t agree with imposing one system across all UWs.
“It’s not really a transferability thing; they just want to make (UW-Madison’s) system everywhere,” Hansen said. “It’s a continuing domination of UW-Madison on all the other schools, so I don’t think any of it benefits us.”
Hoffman said she applauds students’ concern and interest in the matter but wants to emphasize that this is a “short-term compliance transition.”
“We want to be where we need to be to meet the legislation next fall,” Hoffman said. “So we’re going to set up the system. We’re going to use it. And we will almost immediately begin a more comprehensive process to think about — given the parameters that we have from the UW system and the legislature — what really do we want students to get out of this?”
To view the Board of Regents’ official approval of the CGER policy on Nov. 19, click here.
Matczak can be reached at [email protected].
