Florida is eliminating sociology as a core course at its universities
Students can no longer take sociology to fulfill their core course requirements, Florida's state university system ruled Wednesday. Instead, the board approved a “factual history course” as a replacement.
The 17-member board's decision came after fierce opposition from sociology professors in the university system, which includes the University of Florida and Florida State.
And it's the latest move by Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration to challenge the educational establishment and what the governor portrayed as its liberal orthodoxy. Mr. DeSantis, a Republican, had tried to leverage his educational achievements in his failed campaign for president.
In a brief announcement Wednesday, Chancellor Ray Rodrigues said he was proud of the board's decision and looked forward to the history class and “the positive impact the addition of this course will have on our students and their future success.”
The substitute history lesson includes “the founding of America, the horrors of slavery, the resulting Civil War, and the Reconstruction Era.”
Florida has one of the nation's largest public university systems, with more than 430,000 students.
The move alarmed sociology professors, who believed it could lead to fewer students taking classes and majoring in the subject. The American Sociological Association said in a statement Wednesday that it was outraged by the decision and that it was made without any “evidence base.”
“The decision does not appear to come from an informed perspective, but rather from a gross misunderstanding of sociology as an illegitimate discipline, driven by a 'radical' and 'woke' ideology,” the statement said. “Rather, sociology is the scientific study of social life, social change, and the social causes and consequences of human behavior, which are at the heart of civic literacy and essential to a wide range of careers.”
In December, Florida Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr. wrote on social media that “sociology has been hijacked by left-wing activists and no longer serves its intended purpose as a general knowledge course for students.”
He added that under Governor DeSantis, “Florida's higher education system will focus on preparing students for in-demand, high-paying jobs, not woke ideology.”
Some professors have supported the move.
Jukka Savolainen, a professor of sociology at Wayne State University in Detroit, said in an interview opinion essay in The Wall Street Journal in December that the discipline was in trouble and had become “brazenly political.” He called for the inclusion of more opposing views in the teaching of sociology.
“I have been teaching undergraduate courses in sociology since 1996,” he wrote. “Over the decades I have seen my field change from a scientific investigation of social reality to an academic advocacy for left-wing causes.”
The Executive Board was appointed in November approved removing Principles of Sociology from a list of courses students can take to fulfill their general education requirement. The approval on Wednesday made that decision final after a period of public comment.
The course covers topics such as race, gender and sexual orientation, which conservatives in Florida and other states have focused on and tried to limit.
In 2022, Mr. DeSantis signed legislation that limited how racism and other aspects of history can be taught in schools and workplaces. The bill's sponsors called it the Stop WOKE Act. It prohibits, among other things, instruction that might make students feel responsible or guilty about the past actions of other members of their race.
“The governor-appointed governing bodies that oversee Florida's higher education institutions have found a new target in the culture wars they are waging on the state's campuses,” Anne Barrett, a professor of sociology at Florida State University, wrote in An opinion essay published Wednesday on the National Education Association website.
She wrote that eliminating the course would be “devastating for sociology in Florida,” adding that “enrollment will decline. The ability to recruit majors will all but disappear. Weakened sociology departments are ripe for elimination and ultimately layoffs.”