DeSantis and Florida Republicans, in an attempt to reshape the state’s 40 colleges and universities, installed GOP allies in top university posts and pushed legislation that could change tenure and limit how professors teach lessons on race
by imposing political views and interfering with university governance.
“It’s having a really far-reaching effect on the stifling of speech from what I hear from the colleagues who are consulting with me,” said Robert Cassanello, a professor at the University of Central Florida who teaches classes on the civil rights movement, emancipation and the Reconstruction era and is a plaintiff in one lawsuit.
Another new state law approved by Florida’s GOP-led Legislature in 2021 requires all state universities and colleges to survey students, faculty and staff annually about the “intellectual freedom” in schools. The voluntary questionnaire is believed to be the largest-scale campus survey in the nation.
Faculty at the University of Florida broached the issue with Sasse on Monday when the senator visited the campus, asking how he would protect tenure while noting that he ended it during his stint as president of Midland University, a Lutheran school in Nebraska. A draft of proposed system tenure rules indicated that reviews must consider any “biased teaching” or “indoctrination constituting discrimination under Florida law” by the professors, along with history of professional conduct and unapproved absences. It’s unclear, though, if these policies will be included in the final cut of the tenure rule. The Board of Governors canceled its September and October meetings and convenes next on Nov. 9.
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