Imagine being in an English class at a top uni where an unqualified prof is teaching a core text. Seriously. Any respectable prof could/should/would have swotted up on the relevant bits before teaching Dante- even if they were a substitute teacher.
Every generation howls at how we are neglecting the classics, at how ‘modern’ trends are ruining the field, how in some other time it was qualitatively better. Every generation (generally rightly) mocks the extremists, the ones who go over the top- but the next generation moves it on, in the endless winnowing through which people hope to separate the wheat from the chaff. Expanding the canon of literature that is considered worth serious study does not take away from existing areas of study, and broadening the tent of scholars engaged in rigorous literary analysis only adds to the field.
Demands for more than just “dead white males” are not the same thing as a comprehensive “desire” to blow them all the way- and there are plenty of young college students who recognize that. And many profs are building courses that integrate all of those pieces into a bigger, stronger whole.