BY JENNIFER RUTH What does looking back at the fate of anti-CRT legislation teach us about the limitations of the law for saving academic freedom? If you recall, towards the end of his first administration, Donald Trump issued the Executive Order on Combating Race and Sex Stereotypes. It was part of a backlash against the…
BY KIMBERLY HARDY Who cares about the Black Lives Matter and woke movements now? This was the question a friend raised when I discussed the concept of my article for the recently published Journal of Academic Freedom, “A Precedent Set: Understanding the Florida Assault on Academic Freedom Targeting Black History and the Impact on Leadership…
BY HANK REICHMAN Seven professors and a college student in Florida’s public higher education institutions filed suit yesterday to block a new state law that Governor Ron DeSantis calls the “Stop WOKE Act” and which curtails instruction about race and gender as well as much race-based expression in private business. The Florida and national branches…
BY MICHAEL SCHWALBE University of Florida administrators have created a slideshow to help faculty understand the implications of the state’s new law, House Bill 7, also known as the Stop WOKE Act. One slide says, “At its core, the bill’s message is: ‘No one likes to be told what to think. And that includes students.’…
BY JENNIFER RUTH AND ELLEN SCHRECKER We’re used to hearing that American higher education is in serious danger. Many of us have developed a kind of learned helplessness in response to the regularity with which we hear about the crises of the academy. But we are not powerless. Although the current educational gag orders targeting…