2 months ago
Education leaders successful Florida person removed sociology arsenic a graduation constituent astatine authorities universities successful Ron DeSantis’s latest onslaught connected what nan Republican politician sees arsenic nan “woke” indoctrination of students.
The move connected Thursday by a mostly of DeSantis’s hand-picked assemblage committee of governors efficaciously relegates nan stand-alone Introduction to Sociology people to a makeweight elective alternatively of a halfway constituent taxable that has been a celebrated prime for generations of students.
The ruling takes effect astatine Florida’s 12 state-governed universities successful August. They will still beryllium capable to connection nan course, but are prohibited from including it arsenic a required wide acquisition people that fulfils a graduation obligation.
“Sociology arsenic a subject is now societal and governmental defense dressed successful nan regalia of nan academy,” nan assemblage system’s chancellor, Ray Rodrigues, told nan committee gathering successful Pensacola, reported by the Miami Herald.
The committee elected Rodrigues, a adjacent governmental state of DeSantis, arsenic chancellor successful September 2022. He has been credited pinch smoothing nan transition of overmuch of nan governor’s “anti-woke” schedule successful higher education.
In 2024, nan committee replaced a much precocious course, Principles of Sociology, pinch 1 connected history arsenic an approved graduation halfway course.
More widely, DeSantis has driven an ideological makeover successful state-run universities and colleges that has outlawed classes and initiatives related to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) classes. The politician besides instigated what critics called a “hostile takeover” astatine nan New College of Florida, formerly a wide arts school, by removing nan erstwhile committee of governors and installing rightwing allies.
In January 2025, DeSantis conducted a akin cognition astatine Pensacola’s University of West Florida. One of his committee appointees was Scott Yenor, an extremist and arguable professor of governmental subject who erstwhile called career-oriented women “medicated, meddlesome and quarrelsome”. Yenor resigned past year.
The rebrandings person not ever tally smoothly. New College was heavy criticized successful 2024 erstwhile a section newspaper exposed its dumping of thousands of books, including a full clear-out of its gender and diverseness conception that immoderate Democrats likened to Nazi-era book burnings.
The aforesaid year, nan Independent Florida Alligator, nan student newspaper of nan University of Florida, exposed nan free-spending habits of Ben Sasse, nan Republican hard-right erstwhile Nebraska legislator who resigned arsenic president of nan University of Florida aft a turbulent 17-month tenure.
Sasse, DeSantis’s hand-picked prime and nan only finalist for nan occupation successful 2022, fired galore unit and abolished UF’s DEI program, astatine nan aforesaid clip arsenic blowing done $17.3m successful his first twelvemonth of agency and providing lucrative jobs for erstwhile legislature unit and Republican cronies, nan newspaper alleged. Sasse denied nan claims.
Miami Herald reported that Thursday’s removal of nan sociology people came arsenic a surprise, and was not listed connected nan meeting’s agenda. It said Rodrigues cited module guidance to a recently approved, state-designed sociology curriculum and textbook, pinch professors claiming it stripped halfway concepts and misrepresented nan discipline.
Kimberly Dunn, an accounting professor astatine Florida Atlantic University, was 1 of 2 committee members who voted against dropping nan course, according to nan Herald. “The removal whitethorn beryllium premature and broader than necessary,” she said.
“Sociology contributes straight to nan competencies we consistently emphasize. These are skills our graduates request crossed each sector.”
The Guardian has contacted Rodrigues for comment.
