Political Interference and Academic Freedom in Florida

BY HANK REICHMAN On Monday, February 26, I’ll be talking about the AAUP’s recent special investigation report, “Political Interference and Academic Freedom in Florida’s Public Higher Education System,” online with John A. Douglass of the UC Berkeley Center for Studies in Higher Education.  Here’s the Center’s description of the event: In their self-proclaimed “war on…

What Is a University President to Do?

BY HANK REICHMAN Last week the AAUP released a special investigative report, “Political Interference and Academic Freedom in Florida’s Public Higher Education System.”  In interview after interview with faculty members in Florida, the investigating committee, which I co-chaired, “heard repeated complaints not only about the silence of their campus and system administrators but also about…

Welcome to Florida sign

Florida 2023: Mourning and Organizing

BY MIKE BUDD “Don’t mourn—organize!” Joe Hill, union organizer, executed 1915 There’s a lot to mourn in Florida (and elsewhere) right now, not only but especially in our colleges and universities. According to an AAUP preliminary report in May 2023, academic freedom, tenure, and shared governance in Florida’s public colleges and universities currently face a…

Public domain photo of FL Governor Ron DeSantis

DeSantis’s Dystopian Policies and Faculty Flight or Fight

BY YOVANNA PINEDA With a supermajority in the state legislature, Florida governor Ron DeSantis has passed his dream legislation, which seeks to punish those who think differently from him as a white, cisgender, heterosexual male with zero tolerance for the state’s diverse citizens, including African Americans, transgender and LGBTQ+ communities, and immigrants from nearly two…

Lessons From Florida: Event Announcement

BY HISTORIANS AGAINST THE WAR (H-PAD) Right now, public education on all levels in Florida and the rights of the state’s population are under attack by forces led by Governor Ron DeSantis. The governor’s “Anti-Wokeness” campaign threatens to eviscerate honest teaching of United States history and force people of color and the trans and LGBTQ+…

"Divide & conquer" spelled out in movable type and displayed in two compartments of a wooden type box

Dividing and Conquering Academia

BY MICHAEL SCHWALBE Years ago, I was speaking with a colleague about one of the paradoxes of university life: tenured faculty enjoy more job security than almost any other occupational group in US society, yet they are often afraid to fight for their interests as a group. My colleague accounted for this lack of collective…

Florida state flag flying in front of a blue cloudy sky. Florida flag is white with a red X, with the state seal in the center

Who Rules the Curriculum at Florida’s Universities?

BY TIMOTHY V. KAUFMAN-OSBORN For academic freedom’s advocates, there is much to like about the recent federal court ruling prohibiting Florida’s board of governors from enforcing the Individual Freedom Act. Especially gratifying are the rhetorical tropes Judge Mark Walker deploys in justifying this preliminary injunction. When the legislature adopted what Governor Ron DeSantis dubbed the…