I suppose that with the price of education being what it is, you can make a somewhat successful option that the participants in such an education, should be afforded a fairly wide berth of subjects to study upon with minimal interference by collegiate administrators. That type of viewpoint seems to be more and more the prevailing opinion, as never have so many students, had such a wide choice of curriculum to choose from. Of course, there is this fundamental disconnect, which is that students are primarily in school in order to learn how to think and to be taught by those that have wisdom, as opposed to already knowing what they should be thinking, and acting as if they have already been taught.
It certainly makes more sense, that college administrators would administer their colleges in such a manner that certain coherent aspects of becoming a thoughtful and constructive citizen would be part and parcel of the educational institution, as in order for any country to continue to progress and to be vibrant, citizens must have knowledge, truth, ethics, and civic virtue as part of their constitution, because if these things are lacking from the most educated and most intelligent of our citizens, where will then will it be found?
While it certainly is beneficial for students to work hard to achieve that diploma in a subject field or specialty that means something or makes sense to them, so too, it is important that each student ask the most basic of questions, as to who and what they are, and thereby what is the purpose of life, or even of society in general. For while it is all to the good, that students learn something, it is a disservice if students are unable to learn fundamentally that truth, justice, fairness, goodness, integrity, selflessness, as well as righteousness are all necessary characteristics of citizens that one should aspire to be, rather than actually believing that moral codes, as well as right and wrong, shift with the times, or are subjective, or are dictated to us by governmental authorities.
All of the above strongly indicates that each college should and must have a core curriculum, but not just a somewhat arbitrary one, but one that deliberately is thought through so as to inculcate in its students that privileges entails responsibilities which is all part of being a good citizen of these good United States. Our forefathers made great sacrifices and took great risks in their fight for their freedom from Great Britain, in which, it is at a minimum, the responsibility of the best and brightest, to represent well the very things that the fight was for such as: life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, freedom of conscience, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom to petition the government, and freedom of assembly.
There are many, many things that people do not necessarily want to do, but some of those things are things that they ought to do. No country can remain great if its citizens are not great, and great citizens typically come forth from great learning institutions, in which these institutions impress upon the young minds: how to think, and that therefore it then follows that what you think does matter, because thoughts begat actions, and actions are the result of those same thoughts: correct or not.