MIAMI — A state law that limits the content allowed to be taught in general education classes at universities is being implemented and has caused uproar among professors at Florida International University.

The law aims to weed out general education courses “based on theories that systemic racism, sexism, oppression, and privilege are inherent in the institutions of the United States.”

The law also bars professors from teaching courses in general education based on “unproven, speculative, or exploratory content.”

Earlier this year sociology was removed from general education, and now the university is slated to do the same to many more courses.

The departments that have been the most affected by the law are Global and Sociocultural Studies, Politics and International Relations, History, and Earth and Environment.

The implementation of the new state law across Florida’s 12 public universities in the state leaves many academic departments facing the difficult decision of changing the content of a course to keep it in general education or removing it to maintain its integrity.

The dozen professors and students at FIU who spoke to the Miami Herald called the state’s involvement in curriculum decisions censorship and political meddling, and say the process has been chaotic— going against the collaborative approach between administrators and professors necessary to maintaining academic freedom.

Many professors said it will ultimately result in dwindling enrollments for departments, eventually leading to their removal. And students told the Miami Herald they don’t want to pay for elective courses that don’t fulfill requirements.

Professors are angry and concerned about their jobs and a say an environment of fear has swept across the university as administrators scramble to comply with the law. Should universities not comply with the law, they stand to lose part of their funding.

How course revisions and removals happened

Last summer, the chairs of FIU’s academic departments were shocked to receive an email from the administration containing a list of recommendations for revision or removal of their courses from the general education curriculum based on the law.

Having a class count for general education is important because it exposes students to various disciplines in the first years of their studies, including subjects they may not be familiar with, and for some departments, it’s crucial for enrollment numbers.

In all, at least 39 courses were marked as not complying with the statute, with 21 courses ultimately being marked as “ok with proposed revisions,” and 12 marked for removal from general education, according to the latest list of Board of Governors revisions obtained by the Miami Herald from the university. At an earlier Board of Trustees meeting, 22 courses were noted for removal.

Many other courses were removed upstream by department heads who received guidance from the university early on that the course would never be approved, according to emails obtained by the Miami Herald.

In the Department of Global and Sociocultural Studies, nine courses were flagged for review by the Board of Governors — the state administrative body that controls public universities.

Douglas Kincaid, the department chair, said the administration made it clear that two courses – Sociology of Gender and Anthropology of Race and Ethnicity – would never pass the test for inclusion in general education, based on early guidance from the state.

The entirety of the Sociology of Gender course description and learning objectives were highlighted as problematic, and the vast majority of Anthropology of Race and Ethnicity was also noted as objectionable.

Over the following weeks, decisions were made across departments as to what courses to try and “save,” and which to simply let go, with the understanding that their course content would not pass the muster of the Board of Governors.

Some departments determined that it would be better to remove certain courses from general education, instead of sacrificing the integrity of the content of the class with vast revisions.

“There is a high level of political interference which is deeply troubling,” said Katie Rainwater, a professor of Global and Sociocultural Studies at FIU and one of the professors who teaches Sociology of Gender, which had been in general education since 2003.

Kincaid, like all of the faculty members at FIU who spoke to the Miami Herald, sees the hollowing out of general education as political interference undermining academic freedom.

They said the ongoing revisions have occurred without transparency and proper faculty input and fear the revisions threaten the future of free thought and nuanced discourse within public education.

The state governing body for public universities maintains that these courses are not being completely removed and that students who wish to participate can still choose to take them as an elective.

Raul Villegas, 18, a freshman at FIU who spoke to the Miami Herald, said that he felt like the point of education was “to explore dangerous territory or a deeper level of different topics to get a better understanding of topics and formulate your own opinions.”

But he and two of his friends agreed that they would not take a course if it did not count for general education or credit toward their major. “It costs money – paying $200 bucks for a class that ends up not counting sucks,” said Villegas. “It should still count as credit,” he added.

“If they don’t count toward general education I don’t have time. I’ve got to focus on my career. That’s the reason I’m in the university,” said his friend Eduardo Gonzalez, a sophomore who is focused on construction management.

Ray Rodrigues, the Chancellor of the State University System of Florida said that his office is enforcing the law so stringently because policymakers were concerned “that indoctrination was occurring in the classroom.”

He pointed to a Gallup poll which found that American confidence in higher education is dwindling, especially among Republicans. In all, 68 percent say it is headed in the wrong direction. Of the Republicans who lack confidence in higher education, 53 percent mention political agendas, with the idea that education is pushing liberal political ideas on students at the root of their concern. In contrast, Democrats who aren’t confident in higher education cite affordability.

FIU’s president Kenneth Jessell told the Miami Herald that the idea that professors in his university are indoctrinating students is false.

“Our faculty are very, very well balanced, they are focusing on the discipline, ensuring students have a quality education without saying this is the wrong or right way,” he said.

Fear and self-censorship on campus

Across the university, administrators and professors say there is now a pervasive environment of fear and self-censorship.

According to Jennifer L. Doherty-Restrepo, the Assistant Vice President for Academic Planning and Accountability at FIU, the Board of Governors staff “helped us identify general education courses that may not align with the statutes and take that feedback and continue the institutional review.”

Rodrigues, the chancellor of the Board of Governors, said that in a perfect world, his staff would not need to get involved, and all of this would be handled at the university level.

But that has not been the case at FIU. The process has created a game of ping pong between department heads, professors, and the administration where course descriptions and course titles were edited and certain terms were kicked out over months of meetings, phone calls, spreadsheets, and emails.

Professors claim that instead of being done transparently and collaboratively, the revisions occurred through backdoor conversations between the Board of Governors and the administration and provost office at FIU, who were pressured to implement revisions to course objectives and course titles in alignment with the statute.

Many professors have concerns about this process, noting that the staff of the Board of Governors may not be qualified academics with the expertise to be so involved in what is and is not taught in public universities.

According to professors, many departments at the university received suggested revisions to courses that were often out of touch with the objective of the course, and some professors say they were not consulted as to what the revisions were. They also say the law is vague.

Eric Scarffe, is an assistant professor of philosophy and president of the United Faculty of Florida’s chapter at FIU, the faculty union.

He said that given the fact that university budgets are tight, and tuition has not been raised in over a decade, the university was pressured to comply with the law quickly and in a haphazard way.

“There was no long runway with clear guidelines or goals,” he said, referring to the course revision process.

But the administration at FIU stands behind their revision process and says they have received ample input from faculty and followed procedures.

Many courses have been forced to add the term “Western canon” to their description, an idea that refers to works that shaped the development of Western civilization and thought.

But no definition for “Western canon” is provided in the law.

Rodrigues, the chancellor of the Board of Governors, disagrees with the notion that the law is vague, but also could not provide an answer as to the definition of the Western canon.

“I’m not an academic so I would not answer that question. I am an administrator,” he said.

Some professors fear losing their jobs. Some administrators have the same fear, but said they are keeping their mouths shut, simply complying with state law.

Martha Schoolman, an English professor, recalls running into a student and sociology professor on campus. They were discussing the course revisions.

She says she walked away from that conversation and thought: “Well, this whole enterprise isn’t safe anymore, they don’t care about this being a good school… there is a kind of mentality where anything can be sacrificed in order to comply and there is no point in resisting it,” she said.

“They want to re-shape the whole curriculum, the whole system, in this very conservative image.”

Professors are concerned about the revisions to general education courses in part because other securities they long felt are also being pulled out from under them.

Tenure, a process created to protect freedom of academic inquiry, has also been threatened by Governor DeSantis and his supermajority legislature.

Now, professors have to apply for a review every five years. Inside Higher Ed reports that 21 percent of professors at the University of Florida who were reviewed for tenure either gave it up or quit altogether.

The Florida Phoenix reports that around 38 percent of professors (they surveyed 350) had already applied for a job in another state.

Kevin Grove, a geography professor at FIU, agrees that the law is pushing academics out of Florida and causing a brain drain.

He said it censors history and the historical record.

“It silences the experiences of violence, harm, suffering, and the resistance to these conditions.”

Grove believes the implementation of this law marks a return of the “plantation mentality,” which he defines as a system of total social organization on all aspects of society and of beliefs that privilege white supremacy.

At the same time course revisions are occurring and classes are being dropped from general studies, Adam Smith Center for the Study of Economic Freedom at FIU has been awarded over $15 million in state funding. The center has hosted many center-right politicians.

Funding at risk

Many professors said they believe that one reason the administration at FIU and other universities are so eager to implement the revisions and interpret the statute conservatively is because they fear losing funding. But Jessell says he is confident they are following the law and are not concerned about losing funding.

For this school year, the State University System has allocated more than $40 million of “performance-based” funding to FIU, all of which is at risk if the Board of Governors does not approve the list of general education courses.

Other public universities have even more money at risk.

Florida State University, for example, received over $60 million in state performance-based funding this year.

At a January 2025 Board of Governors meeting, a list of general education courses from all twelve of the public universities in the state will be voted on. At that time, the staff will be asked by the board whether they have any concerns about the curriculum – and universities will find out whether or not they are able to maintain their performance-based funding.

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Miami Herald reporter Ana Claudia Chacin contributed to this report.

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