Academic freedom and free speech issues on university campuses do not generally focus on questions of curriculum but, rather, on individual actors. As an academic dean whose primary responsibility is to ensure delivery of the curriculum published in a university’s course catalog of record considered a contract between an institution and its students – I observe the influence of curricula on academic speech and argue for increased involvement of the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) in defining curricula. I argue that the California Ethnic Studies requirements mandated by the State of California, including new requirements for the University of California system as well as the California State University Area F general education category approved in 2021, involve definitions of expertise biased against ethnicities tied to religions and that protect Ethnic Studies faculty without Middle East expertise from anti-Israel and antisemitic classroom activity under all definitions of academic freedom.

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