Usually, a public university system’s decision to drop one required undergraduate course would not trigger fears about the ideologically driven destruction of American higher education. Unless, of course, the public university system in question was located in Florida. Unless, of course, those spearheading the plan were Florida Republicans. And unless the class in question was “The Principles of Sociology.”
Florida has voted to drop this introductory course as a general education requirement. It will be replaced by a history offering. Sociologists are, justifiably, disconsolate.
The administration of Gov. Ron DeSantis, conversely, is ebullient. In a tweet, Florida Commissioner of Education Manny Diaz Jr. affirms:
This strike at sociology is very on-brand for the Florida GOP. We know about DeSantis’ ongoing crusade to commandeer all leadership positions at New College of Florida. Elsewhere, a proverbial Florida Man (with the checkered past and absence of relevant credentials that such an identity entails) has been installed as the leader of South Florida State College. The American Association of University Professors chronicled this and other outrageous Sunshine State power grabs in a report so full of absurd details that it reads like a campus novel.
Those attacks on schools and professors have involved a very top-down approach. De-platforming a gateway sociology course, by contrast, is awfully bottom-up. Why wage this particular micro-battle?
The right is gunning for sociology because it believes the discipline inculcates left-wing ideology. This is incorrect.
In one sense, the right is simply following its script. Movement conservatism is (paradoxically) determined to demonstrate that it can disrupt any long-standing American tradition, be it the peaceful transition of power, settled SCOTUS case law, or a college course your grandma likely took. Sociology 101 has been a staple of college liberal arts curricula since the 1950s. Millions of undergrads have taken…
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