Florida’s public universities will no longer allow a standalone introductory sociology course to count toward general-education requirements after state leaders on Thursday approved a sweeping, systemwide ban that reflects years of Republican criticism of the discipline.

The move — which was not originally on the agenda for the State University System’s Board of Governors — will effectively relegate introductory sociology to an elective starting this fall, removing it from the core curriculum taken by most undergraduates.

It also marks an escalation in Florida leaders’ efforts to reshape college instruction, particularly on topics such as race, gender and inequality, which conservative officials have increasingly targeted as “woke.”