A comprehensive review has led to over 400 classes being stripped from Florida State University’s general education course offerings for the 2025-26 school year.
FSU’s Board of Trustees approved the removal of 432 classes during a meeting on campus Thursday from a list of 571 general education course options. It was part of a new annual review process required by a Florida Board of Governors regulation.
While outcomes of the review – which was driven by the Board of Governors to fall in line with a state law pushed by Gov. Ron DeSantis – could remove hundreds of courses from options students have to fulfill general education requirements, they will not get rid of the courses altogether. They will continue to be offered as electives.
“We’re living through an era of Legislature-driven higher education reform,” FSU Provost and Executive Vice President of Academic Affairs Jim Clark said Thursday at the trustees meeting.
“There’s been a lot of interpretations and negotiations on a daily basis to make sure we’re able to keep the courses we think are essential in gen ed for freshmen and sophomores while respecting the principles of reform that the legislature has been advancing through the law.”
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Why are hundreds of courses being removed?
Florida Board of Governors Regulation 8.005 was amended in January to require that each of the 12 university presidents and boards of trustees in the State University System (SUS) review and approve all general education offerings on an annual basis starting this year.
The regulation trickles down from a far-reaching higher education law passed by DeSantis and Florida Republicans last year that also prohibited spending tied to diversity, equity and inclusion and implemented a new post-tenure review process – all key pieces in DeSantis’s efforts to reshape the state’s higher education system.
The new rule for a review of general education courses also aligns with Florida Statute 1007.25, which explains how general education needs to be broad in nature. This prohibits curriculum on “identity politics” or “theories that systemic racism, sexism, oppression and privilege are inherent in the institutions of the U.S.”
In February, the Florida Department of Education provided FSU with a spreadsheet of its general education course offerings for the review, where the university decided which ones will either be kept, updated or removed.
Although the university initially submitted a list of 359 approved general education course offerings out of 571 to the Board of Governors in August, the list was sent back to trustees in September with feedback for further review, which said the majority of the courses did not meet the new general education requirements since they were “too narrow in scope.”
Clark said FSU President Richard McCullough worked closely with Florida SUS Chancellor Ray Rodrigues during the process, and the provost’s team as well as department chairs and faculty were also a part of discussions about the changes since February.
“One of the things that really caught my attention is ‘that course is too narrow,'” McCullough said Thursday, referring to the review process. “It takes a lot of work to look at each one of these courses to determine that. We’re under a deadline… but I would urge that we think about that carefully in round two.”
‘This is a massive undertaking’
Besides the 432 courses that trustees voted to have removed from General Education Thursday, 126 courses were approved while 13 have been updated and are pending the Board of Governors’ review before potentially being added to the list of approved classes.
The 432 courses that were removed from General Education range from Theories of African American Studies, Critics of Religion and American Multi-Ethnic Literature to Feminism and Globalization, the Evolution of Human Sexuality and LGBTQ History.
While a significant number of courses related to humanities and social sciences were taken out, several chemistry and mathematics classes were also removed and deemed more appropriate for juniors and seniors once they enter their given majors, according to the university.
Earlier this year at Florida A&M University, trustees voted to remove 18 general education courses from a list of over 160 offerings, which have already been approved by the Board of Governors.
“This is new,” FSU trustee and Academic Affairs Committee Chair Vivian de las Cuevas-Diaz said Thursday. “This is a massive undertaking that we have done, which is a wonderful undertaking.”
“It was not wonderful, I think, when we got the idea of this regulation and what it was going to entail, but the work has really allowed us to understand what it is that we are teaching,” she added.
With a current total of 571 general education courses, FSU has the second largest offering in the SUS while the University of Florida offers about 1,000 general education classes, according to FSU’s Associate Vice President of Faculty Development and Advancement Amy Guerette. Some universities in the system offer as little as 68.
FSU Board of Trustees Chair Peter Collins says the change at the university has the potential to “impact our freshmen and sophomore experiences and the learning environment.” At the same time, he thinks it was a “good cleanup.”
“It’s a good effort, but it’s so important that we communicate with the faculty and the people teaching these classes on a daily basis to let them know this board (of trustees) is certainly not trying to infringe upon what they’re trying to teach,” Collins said.
The removals from the list of general education courses do not translate into a loss of jobs for faculty, according to a university spokesperson.
The Board of Governors will meet Jan. 29 and 30 on the University of North Florida’s campus to review remaining SUS general education course lists.
“This is a marathon – not a sprint,” Clark said. “This is not a one-off or a single event. Each year, we will be revisiting and looking at gen ed offerings.”
Contact Tarah Jean at tjean@tallahassee.com or follow her on X: @tarahjean_.
