{"id":210413,"date":"2026-03-29T08:20:21","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T08:20:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/210413\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T08:20:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T08:20:21","slug":"florida-board-of-governors-drops-sociology-from-state-university-core-courses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/210413\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Board of Governors drops sociology from state university core courses"},"content":{"rendered":"

PENSACOLA, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 The State University System Board<\/a> of Governors voted Thursday to remove sociology courses from Florida’s public university education catalog.<\/p>\n

During a meeting in Pensacola, CBS12 partners at the South Florida Sun Sentinel<\/a> say board members approved the change to eliminate \u201cIntroduction to Sociology\u201d from general education offerings, shifting the course to an elective beginning in the 2026\u20132027 academic year.<\/p>\n

This will affect a dozen state universities<\/a>, including: Florida State University, Florida Atlantic University, University of North Florida, University of Florida, Florida International University, and University of South Florida.<\/p>\n

See also: Smash-and-Spend: Police say BMW burglary fueled Boca Town Center fraud spree, 1 at large<\/a><\/p>\n

The proposal was not listed on the public agenda and was introduced roughly 40 minutes into the meeting by Chancellor Ray Rodrigues<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In a statement backing up his decision, Rodrigues argued the course was better suited as an elective:<\/p>\n

The path to preserve academic freedom and preserve compliance with Florida statutes is clear: remove Sociology 1000 and 2000 courses from all general education classifications. Leave these courses as electives, free to compete in the marketplace of ideas, and leave them as the majors and the minors for the students who choose to study them.<\/p>\n

The decision is reportedly part of a broader push by state leaders to limit diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)<\/a> initiatives within Florida\u2019s public university system.<\/p>\n

The move follows an earlier decision in 2024, when sociology was removed from the state\u2019s list of core courses after board members argued it did not meet Florida\u2019s civics requirements.<\/p>\n

Comment with Bubbles<\/p>\n

BE THE FIRST TO COMMENT<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you look at the concepts that are discussed in sociology, they\u2019re very theoretical,\u201d said board member and then\u2013state Education Commissioner Manny Diaz at the time<\/a>. \u201cWhile that field was very scientific, at one point, it has moved away from that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PENSACOLA, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 The State University System Board of Governors voted Thursday to remove sociology courses from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":210414,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[232,234,233],"class_list":["post-210413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210413\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}