On January 24, 2024, the Florida State University Board of Governors elected to remove sociology as a core course for students. While sociology classes will still be available at Florida universities, its removal as a core course means that students will no longer fulfill the social sciences requirement by taking a sociology class. This will negatively impact the overall enrollment in sociology classes, preventing students from exploring the subject area. The sociology requirement will be replaced by the “Factual History” course, which focuses primarily on US history.
The amendment was faced with criticism from sociology professors at Florida universities and across the country. In a statement to the Guardian by the American Sociological Association, they state that the removal of sociology as a core course stems from a “gross misunderstanding of sociology as an illegitimate discipline driven by ‘radical’ and ‘woke’ idealogy.” They also voice that “failure to expose students to the scientific study of the range of issues faced by American citizens would be a failure of civics education.”
The change is just one development in a series of restrictions in Florida’s public education system, led by Governor Ron DeSantis in a war against “woke indoctrination.” Previously, the state passed bills like the “Don’t Say Gay” Bill in 2022, restricting the discussion of topics regarding sex and sexuality in kindergarten to 3rd-grade classrooms, and the Stop W.O.K.E. (Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees) Act, also passed in 2022, which essentially bans the teaching of critical race theory, which DeSantis frames as “state-sanctioned racism.”
In a discussion with Amanda Cox, a sociology professor at Bryn Mawr, she said that the development is worrying. Professor Cox has seen firsthand how students end up taking an interest in sociology even though they initially enroll in the class to fulfill graduation requirements. She believes that students not taking a sociology course will miss out on the benefits of the discipline, which teaches critical thinking and provides a framework and vocabulary with which to examine and critique the society around us.
“I think it’s a much bigger issue that is being played out on this smaller stage with this one discipline in this one state. Sociology is seen as very ‘woke’ because we’re critiquing the social world, it’s getting caught up in the culture wars in Florida,” stated Professor Cox. “It’s disturbing, banning knowledge because some people don’t like that knowledge. I think that’s a slippery slope, and I worry our rights can be eaten away in different places over time until we look up and realize what’s happened. It’s scary that it’s happening from both directions – at the college level and in children’s education.”
Students in the Bi-Co who are from Florida also have things to say about the amendment and their experiences growing up in the Florida education system. Anquon Neely, HC ’26, thinks that “the decision to remove sociology as a core course and replace it with an apparently ‘factual account’ of American history is horrendous.” Anquon also felt dissatisfied with public schooling in Florida because it “doesn’t do a very good job of teaching students critical thinking before sending them to college”
Bryn Mawr freshmen Meredith Rothstein and Kathleen Tan have had similar experiences growing up in Florida, stating that they were not properly taught about slavery and the Civil War and they did not have “a very comprehensive education.”
When asked why she didn’t go to Florida for college, Meredith, a potential Gender and Sexuality Studies minor, explained: “Why would I go to a school where they could take away my area of study and they won’t teach me the things I want to learn? It was a hard decision because you can save so much money and you do get a great degree, but at the same time, I wouldn’t have been able to learn the things I wanted to learn about.” To this, Kathleen added, “our education has always been lacking, but now it’s purposefully lacking.”
Florida ranks #1 overall in university education in the US despite the various restrictions placed on the education system by Ron DeSantis in the past five years. Students enrolling in a public university in Florida can go essentially for free, and can even be paid to go if their grades and test scores are good enough. This makes Florida the state with the lowest in-state tuition and fees in the US. This gives students in Florida an incentive to stay in the state, even if they disagree with Ron DeSantis and his restrictions on education.
“It’s not normal to be limited in your education,” said Kathleen, “you assume when you’re being taught that you’re being taught everything. It’s so weird to know that you’re not learning everything you could be.”
“I think it’s interesting that they targeted sociology specifically because I think that some people don’t see how sociology is problematic to [DeSantis],” Kathleen remarked, “but everything he does is about pitting people against each other or creating a problem that we need to be scared of, and that’s what sociology informs people about.”
Students also expressed a feeling of helplessness about the situation. “It feels so out of our control because it’s just Ron DeSantis,” stated Meredith.
When speaking with both Professor Cox and students, there an overall agreement that the removal of sociology as a core course was just one instance in a rising tide of limitations in education and everyday life in conservative states.
“It’s something much broader, I think it’s much more about the culture wars we’re seeing in society,” stated Professor Cox. “It’s about these really big questions like what is truth? Who gets to decide what truth is? What is a fact? Do we trust institutions and evidence? Right now, there’s a tension and struggle with who we listen to and what we believe.”
