Social Sciences: Utility as a Pretext

Abstract

On Thursday, 26 March 2026, meeting in Pensacola, the Board of Governors of Florida's public university system took up a motion that was not on the agenda. Four institutions — North Florida, Gulf Coast, Florida A&M and South Florida — had asked that "Introduction to Sociology" be removed from their respective general education lists. The system chancellor went further than what had been requested and moved to extend the measure to all twelve state universities. It was voted on that same day and approved (Waagmeester, 2026; Palmer, 2026). Three weeks later, the state's public colleges adopted the same criterion (Rivero, 2026). The measure does not prohibit teaching Sociology. The course remains available at all twelve universities, now as an elective, and anyone who wishes to take it may do so from the 2026-2027 academic year onward. What changed is its place in the curricular architecture: it is no longer part of the set of courses every student must pass in order to graduate, whatever their degree program. The difference seems minor and it is not. Faculty across the system had warned before the vote what the expected consequence would be (Waagmeester, 2026). Suppose a mid-sized department at any of those universities. In 2027 it loses half its enrollments, because students from other programs who previously took the course as a requirement no longer need it. In 2029, with sections running at half capacity, the university does not fill two vacant positions. In 2031 the department appears on the list of low-performing programs and is merged into another. None of those three decisions requires any mention of the course's content. By that point there is no need to debate what Sociology teaches: the enrollment spreadsheets suffice. The example is hypothetical, but the chain is not, and its first link is already in place.