FEATURED
Key Takeaways
- Florida State University launched an undergraduate degree in Civics and Liberty Studies aimed at training ethically grounded civic leaders, with concentrations in constitutional, economic, conscience, and educational liberty, starting in fall 2026.
- The curriculum blends liberal arts with technical training, focusing on American foundational documents, political philosophy, and empirical social science, culminating in a civics research seminar where students tackle concrete civic issues.
- The program responds to concerning trends in civic engagement, aiming to enhance political tolerance and reduce self-censorship among students, as indicated by survey data that revealed significant levels of students considering shouting down speakers acceptable.
Florida State University launched a new undergraduate degree, called Civics and Liberty Studies, to create “ethically grounded civic leaders” beginning in fall 2026.
The CLS curriculum, created by the school’s Institute for Governance and Civics, offers four concentrations, including constitutional liberty, economic liberty, conscience liberty, and educational liberty, according to the program’s description.
“Students explore foundational American documents, great books of Western political thought,” and “empirical approaches to policy and governance,” the description states.
“The program integrates rigorous scholarship in political philosophy, constitutional law, social science methods, economic analysis, ethical reasoning, and classical education to foster thoughtful civic engagement, informed leadership, and ethical participation in public life,” it states.
Ryan Owens, director of the Institute for Governance and Civics at FSU, told The College Fix the degree program blends broad education with technical training.
“This interdisciplinary degree program is an effort to balance the liberal arts’ cultivation of the whole person with the acquisition of technical competence,” Owens said.
“It integrates classical and modern texts, empirical social science, legal analysis and rhetorical training to develop thoughtful, data-informed and ethically grounded civic leaders,” he said.
Owens referenced a poll conducted by the institute, which found that 20 percent of young adults believe using physical violence to stop “harmful” public speech can be justified.
Further, nearly 60 percent of respondents said that some forms of speech can be as damaging as physical violence.
Owens said more civic education is needed to combat this trend.
“Civic education enhances political engagement. Much good flows from civic education, so we aim to double down on it,” he said.
“Self-government works only if people understand ‘the rules of the game’ and why those rules exist,” Owens said. “That’s what we aim to teach them — and to provide skills useful for civic and professional life.”
Madison Doan, an education policy analyst at The Heritage Foundation, told The Fix this degree has the potential to prepare students for post-college engagements.
“It appears to be a strong program,” Doan said. “It combines the study of foundational American documents and great works of Western political thought with empirical approaches to policy and governance, thereby better preparing students for real-world engagements post-college.”
This program could also enhance open dialogue at FSU, according to Doan.
“While FSU ranks No. 17 out of 257 schools in FIRE’s free speech rankings, there is still room for improvement,” she said.
“Nearly half of students (48%) report self-censoring at least once or twice a month, and 67% say it is acceptable to shout down a speaker. Expanding programs like this, along with broader engagement through the Institute, should help improve political tolerance, civic knowledge and overall climate for open dialogue,” Doan told The Fix.
Echoing Owens, she said that stronger civic education is needed in the U.S. at all levels, as demonstrated by data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress.
“The need for stronger civic education is clear,” Doan said. “On the 2022 NAEP civics assessment, only 22% of eighth graders were proficient, and 31% scored below basic.”
The American Association of University Professors did not respond to requests for comment on its assessment of the new program.
This isn’t the only change FSU has made to its curriculum. Last year, the school removed hundreds of courses from its general education catalogue to comply with a state law that cracks down on critical race theory curricula, The College Fix previously reported.
“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,” the Tallahassee Democrat reported.
