Suicide on Sociology Row

James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal ^ | July 17, 2026 | Scott Yenor

[karpov]

No state matches Florida in higher education reform. Its landmark Senate Bill 266, passed during the 2023 legislative session, abolished DEI offices. It also requires general education reform in state universities and colleges.

Few reforms simply implement themselves. The rubber of implementation started hitting university roads in 2023. Florida’s Board of Governors (BOG), which oversees the entire university system, put forward a rule to remove Sociology 1000: The Principles of Sociology as part of general education reform. Final BOG approval came in early 2024. Then Florida’s college system removed Sociology 1000 from its 28 schools in April 2024. Beginning in Fall 2024, Sociology 1000 would not be in Florida’s general education core. Anywhere.

Sociology 2000 remained to fulfill general education requirements. But then, earlier this year, Florida sociologists bragged about how they were defying the state “restrictions on race and gender.” In response, Florida’s BOG removed Sociology 2000 from the general education core in March.

“Sociology as a discipline is now social and political advocacy dressed in the regalia of the academy,” said Ray Rodrigues, chancellor of the State University System’s BOG, as the BOG cut Sociology 2000. Sociology, as I have argued, is unfit for general education. Others think sociology has descended into woke parody. Sociology indeed, as another insider writes, has committed intellectual suicide.

Sociology as a discipline has been bleeding students for more than a decade. Now, in Florida, sociology must compete for students without the assistance of being in general education, where departments can generally count on some enrollment because students must meet some requirement. Sociologists know that their jobs are on the line if enrollments do not stay sufficiently robust. Leaving the general education system may lead to program review, shrinkage, or elimination.

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TOPICS: Education
KEYWORDS: college; sociology

[17th Miss Regt]

Sniff, sniff... waahhh!

[pierrem15]

Sociology is queen of the politicized pseudo sciences. It’s basically, “How to lie with statistics to promotes sexual perversion and left wing causes.”

[aquila48]

Good start.

Get rid of ethnic, women, and gender studies too.

DeSantis has done a great job in Florida. He’d make a great president.

[AppyPappy]

Sociology majors usually end up as social workers. You are basically working with the worst of the worst or the worst of cases.

[packagingguy]

Can’t do much with a sociology degree but perhaps work at the state welfare office or become a shift manager at a restaurant.

[Resolute Conservative]

I call them the doofus sciences.

[Vigilanteman]

Psychology is study of the id by the odd.
Sociology is study of the masses by the horse’s @$$es.

[ckilmer]

imho de santis is great too.

but he would really need to change occupations to some kind of big media role for awhile to run on the big stage.

[oldplayer]

I took sociology as an undergraduate in the early 1970’s. It was then a true discipline where groups were studied, statistics objectively compiled, we learned how to do real surveys and polling (NOT “push polling”) and the theories of the giants of the founding of sociology in the 1800’s. No longer!

I was a good student, worked hard and got a good job a few years later as an exploration geologist working for a precious mineral company. (Sociology was not my only interest!)

[catnipman]

couldn’t all the recalcitrant surplus sociology “professors” segue into the coal-mining or coding fields?

[Seruzawa]

Sociology is nonsense. They are merely clerks that keep track of the damage caused to society by psychologists.