Florida axes sociology as required class at state universities in latest attack on ‘woke’ | Florida
Florida education officials have removed sociology as a graduation component at state universities in Ron DeSantis’ latest attack on what the Republican governor considers “woke” indoctrination of students.
The decision Thursday by a majority of the university’s board of trustees hand-picked by DeSantis effectively relegates the standalone introductory sociology course to a weighty elective instead of a core subject that has been a popular choice for generations of students.
The decision will take effect in August at Florida’s 12 state universities. They will still be able to offer the course, but they will be prohibited from including it as a required general education course that fulfills a graduation requirement.
“Sociology as a discipline is now social and political advocacy dressed in the regalia of the academy,” university system Chancellor Ray Rodrigues said at the board meeting in Pensacola, reported by the Miami Herald.
The board elected Rodrigues, a close political ally of DeSantis, as chancellor in September 2022. He is credited with facilitating the passage of much of the governor’s “anti-woke” agenda in higher education.
In 2024, the board replaced a more advanced course, Principles of Sociology, with a history course as an approved core course for graduation.
More broadly, DeSantis brought about an ideological transformation at public universities and colleges that banned courses and course-related initiatives on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). The governor also incited what critics called a “hostile takeover” at New College of Florida, formerly a liberal arts school, by removing the old board of governors and installing right-wing allies there.
In January 2025, DeSantis conducted a similar operation at the University of West Florida in Pensacola. One of its board members was Scott Yenor, an extremist and controversial political science professor who once called career-oriented women “medicinal, indiscreet and quarrelsome.” Yenor resigned last year.
Rebranding hasn’t always gone smoothly. New College came under heavy criticism in 2024 when a local newspaper revealed its dumping of thousands of books, including the complete removal of its gender and diversity section that some Democrats compared to Nazi-era book burnings.
That same year, the Independent Florida Alligator, the University of Florida’s student newspaper, exposed the free spending habits of Ben Sasse, the far-right former Republican senator from Nebraska who resigned as president of the University of Florida after a turbulent 17-month tenure.
Sasse, DeSantis’ hand-picked choice and the only finalist for the job in 2022, fired numerous employees and abolished UF’s DEI program, while spending $17.3 million in his first year in office and giving lucrative jobs to former congressmen and Republican friends, the newspaper claimed. Sasse denied these claims.
The Miami Herald reported that Thursday’s removal of the sociology class was a surprise and was not on the meeting agenda. It says Rodrigues cited professors’ resistance to a newly approved, state-designed sociology curriculum and textbook, with professors saying it destroyed core concepts and distorted the discipline.
Kimberly Dunn, an accounting professor at Florida Atlantic University, was one of two board members who voted against dropping the course, according to the Herald. “This removal may be premature and broader than necessary,” she said.
“Sociology directly contributes to the skills we constantly emphasize. These are skills our graduates need across all sectors.”
The Guardian has contacted Rodrigues for comment.
