Historically Black College Ends Black Studies Major
Florida A&M University, a historically black university with 7,800 undergraduate students, announced last month that it will consolidate its black studies degree with its history, philosophy, and religion degrees in an effort to ensure all students can find a well-paying job after graduation.
Courses on offer at Florida A&M University this semester include “Black Beauty: Women’s Images and National Identity,” “Environmental History and Political Ecology of the African Diaspora,” and “Sociology of the Black Experience.”
The university says on its website that students in the black studies program “examine fundamental concepts such as the social, legal, and economic systems that came to be as a result of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and African migration.”
Many students were outraged and saw the degree’s removal as the outcome of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s war on DEI. This makes sense, given that black studies programs have historically shared the philosophical grounding of DEI ideology and focused on issues such as intersectionality, implicit bias, and structural racism.
Florida A&M disputed that the decision to consolidate the program was politically motivated, saying that it was focused on helping students find success after graduation. (RELATED: College Fine Arts and Theater Programs Are About to Be In Trouble)
“If our number one customer is not hearing and understanding why we are making decisions, it feels like it’s an attack,” Michael White, the vice chair of the Florida A&M University Board of Trustees, told the Tallahassee Democrat. “I do stand with the students … but also, I want to make sure our students are graduating with well-paying jobs and we have viable programs that are able to sustain themselves.”
Unsaid in White’s explanation is that Florida A&M has evidently determined that the continuance of black studies as a standalone program would not ensure that all students graduate with well-paying jobs.
The university’s provost further explained that the black studies program was consolidated so as to meet the Florida Board of Governors’ performance guidelines, which ask universities to ensure programs award at least 30 degrees over a three-year period. The African American studies program had only graduated 16 students over the past three years. Still, adhering to that 30-degree metric is voluntary. (RELATED: Gender Studies Got So Unhinged That Texas A&M Shut It Down)
In a Feb. 13 statement titled “Institutional Statement on Academic Program Prioritization,” the university said that it has “no plans to eliminate or diminish scholarship” in the area of African American studies. It added, “Any programmatic adjustment reflects structural alignment only and does not change our enduring commitment to this field of study.”
Some students were not on board with the university’s reason for ending the black studies major.
“Education has become a business in this country, but the value of our education should not be quantified by these metrics like ‘productivity,’” Justin Jordan, the president of the university’s Students for a Democratic Society chapter, told WFSU.
As black studies programs across the country face scrutiny alongside DEI — given that they essentially provide an education in DEI — the fact that these programs’ graduates have lower salaries has not strengthened their positions.
A 2023 report by the National Association of Colleges and Employers found that the average starting salary for 2022 graduates of “Ethnic, Cultural Minority, Gender, and Group Studies” programs was $47,502. The overall starting salary that year was $60,028.
Some colleges’ ethnic studies programs have worse outcomes. According to the Chronicle on Higher Education, the average median earnings for graduates of Spelman College’s “Ethnic Cultural Minority Gender and Group Studies” program is $25,137. Spelman is considered to be one of the most elite historically black colleges in the country.
Florida A&M University is not the only university to end its black studies programs following the backlash against DEI.
Last year, Indiana University Bloomington closed its black studies program and more than 100 other programs after the state Legislature passed a law requiring a minimum number of graduates for a public degree program. Kennesaw State University also announced last year that it would “deactivate” its black studies program. Further, the University of Iowa announced last week that it is proposing to close its African American studies major due to low enrollment.
Still, the vast majority of black studies programs, which are often centers of DEI activism and teach tenets of DEI ideology, have so far survived the growing backlash against DEI.
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