Florida International University’s Board of Trustees voted last week to drop 22 courses from the core curriculum, including Anthropology of Race & Ethnicity, Introduction to LGBTQ+ Studies, and Sociology of Gender. The move follows last year’s passage of SB 266, a high-profile bill that, among other things, limits the scope of general education courses allowed at public universities.
FIU’s vote passed despite concerns from teachers and the American Association of University Professors, who say the administration is overreaching on curriculum issues, which are traditionally the work of professors. Only two trustees voted against this.
Critics have raised many concerns about Florida’s SB 266, which cut funding for diversity, equity and inclusion programs, introduced post-tenure faculty reviews, and reduced engagement. But its provision to reshape the general education curriculum has received little attention, playing quietly on campuses over the summer and entering a process that some faculty see as a betrayal of shared governance practices.
The state has already dropped the Principles of Sociology from all mainstream education offerings; last year federal officials announced that the discipline was liberal in nature. Now some courses are in the decision stage: Starting next fall, students in all 40 public institutions of Florida will have several options of several types to choose from, especially in the issues of race, gender, sexuality and diversity.
These revisions are driven by a Florida law enacted as part of SB 266 that states that core subjects “must not distort important historical events or include a curriculum that teaches identity politics … found in United States institutions and designed to maintain social, political, and economic inequality.”
Controversies at FIU
In a statement at last week’s meeting of the FIU Board of Trustees, the chairman of the Faculty Senate, Noël Barengo, indicated that the curriculum review seems to go beyond what is called for by state law, saying that the process was carried out in secret by the Florida Board of Governors.
“This seems to be … the opposite view of [Board of Governors] employees who are not supported by anything in writing. If the BOG wishes to establish this regulation, it can do so,” he said. “However, this proposed regulation will need to be vetted properly, including a public comment period. The absence of these written guidelines makes our task of revising the general education curriculum impossible.”
Until the BOG establishes such guidelines, he suggested that “these forced changes of ours [core curriculum] delay.”
Barengo also objected to the idea that any of the canceled studies include distorted historical events or are based on unverified, speculative or experimental content, which would be against the law of the land.
Katie Rainwater, a professor in the Global and Sociocultural Studies Department, teaches two courses that will be affected by the change: Introduction to Sociology and Sociology of Gender. He is worried about what their disconnection from mainstream education will mean for students.
“Learning about race, gender, LGBTQ+ issues, low-wage worker issues is important and important to our students,” Rainwater said. “We are a university with many minorities. Most of our students come from working class families. I think this type of content helps them make sense of the welfare state, understand systems of oppression and learn about social movements that have created opportunities for people from these groups to gain more freedom. I think it is a great loss.”
But FIU has defended its procedures.
At a Faculty Senate meeting last month, Provost Elizabeth Béjar revealed that the university has worked to include professors in the process of dropping out or changing courses, noting that she thinks other institutions have not shared the same faculty.
“We did everything we could to keep the intelligence of the scholar,” said Béjar.
“At FIU we value and respect faculty governance,” Jennifer L. Doherty-Restrepo, FIU’s vice president for academic planning and accountability, said in a statement. Within Higher Ed. “The Office of the Provost and the Faculty Senate have convened academic workgroups in Fall 2023 to review general education courses to ensure compliance with standards set forth in applicable federal laws.”
After they identified which courses to drop or change, “the President and the Board of Trustees reviewed and approved a list of general course offerings to be considered for approval by the Florida Board of Trustees,” he wrote.
Outlook status
FIU is not alone in making drastic changes to its general education program; all public institutions in Florida had to undergo a similar review. But few others have reported or shared their efforts to comply with SB 266.
Of the twelve members of Florida’s State University System, most did not respond to a request for comment Within Higher Edor did not provide statements of how the changes were made. The Florida Board of Governors also did not respond to a request for comment, and a public records request for updates on all 40 institutions was not fulfilled before publication.
Besides FIU, only the University of North Florida and Florida A&M University have issued a statement about the changes.
“UNF began an institutional review of its regular courses in Fall 2022, which was a semester before the law was passed. A faculty-led task force was formed to complete this review, and once the law was implemented, task force members were left to write and review options for a general education curriculum that aligns with the government’s new policies,” said spokeswoman Amanda Ennis. email. “Courses were removed for a variety of reasons, including whether they fit the state’s new definitions of essential categories.”
Florida A&M spokeswoman Alonda Thomas shared a link to the course changes and cuts approved last month. “We have not been adversely affected by the regular course changes,” he wrote. “This process involves collaboration between program teachers, program leaders, and the Academic Affairs Division to review existing general education courses and ensure they are consistent with institutional and State needs.”
Local and national media have largely ignored the story, with the exception of some mentions of changes to general education courses at Florida Atlantic University and the University of South Florida.
But the issue has drawn the attention of the American Association of University Professors.
Isaac Kamola, director of the AAUP’s Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom and professor of political science at Trinity College in Connecticut, addressed the FIU Board of Trustees at a meeting last week. He raised concerns that “the Faculty Senate passed” and that the review was being conducted by BOG staff.
In interview no Within Higher EdKamola pointed to SB 266 as an example of a legislative attack on higher education, which he has written about in the past. Kamola cited major changes implemented across Florida in response to the law, from the closing of DEI offices to content restrictions, which he views as an attack on academic freedom.
“This seems to be another example of the Legislature giving greater authority to political appointees to make decisions in all departments of the university, including courses,” he said.
Kevin Grove, a geography professor at FIU, offered a similar view.
Grove said the revisions are part of a long-term effort to “disintegrate higher education and set ideological agendas and force federal scrutiny of what can be taught in public higher education programs directed at the highest levels of state government.”
Although none of his classes were affected, Grove is concerned about FIU’s Department of Earth and Social Studies. The disciplinary department includes anthropology, geography and sociology. Popular classes—including Sociology of Gender—enroll more than 100 students, offer multiple disciplines and serve as an introduction to the discipline. Without those courses, department numbers will drop, and fewer majors may enroll outside of the introductory class. As prices drop, so does funding from the government to individual departments.
But Grove suspects that’s the point of relegating general education course options.
“Since they have been removed from the core curriculum, you will see the enrollment hole created by the Board of Governors. This has a long-term impact, not only on the health of the departments, but also on the existence of departments such as sociology, anthropology, women’s and gender studies, African American studies and diaspora,” said Grove. “All of these are programs whose existence in the future is questionable.”
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