BY HANK REICHMAN When the AAUP’s special committee on political interference and academic freedom in Florida’s public higher education system, which I cochaired, issued its report last December, there was little mention of former Nebraska Republican senator Ben Sasse’s appointment as president of the University of Florida. After all, Governor Ron DeSantis’s unprecedented takeover of…
BY BERNIE MACHEN The following is the text of remarks by University of Florida President Emeritus Bernie Machen at a naming celebration for the Bud Shorstein Center for Jewish Studies at UF on September 7, 2023. The Jewish people are integral to the development of our world and have made many contributions over the ages. …
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 HANK REICHMAN Given the case’s high importance, a U.S. District Court judge says he hopes to issue an order by January 24 on a suit filed by a group of University of Florida professors to invalidate the school’s conflict of interest policy as an unconstitutional infringement on freedom of speech. “This is on the…
BY STEVEN LUBET Three University of Florida political science professors have sued the university trustees and several officials for violations of the First Amendment and academic freedom, alleging that they had been prevented from “testifying on behalf of voting-rights groups in a lawsuit challenging Florida’s Senate Bill 90 (‘SB 90’).” In what appeared to be…
BY ALICE FREIFELD After 27 years at the University of Florida, I retired on the first day of class this fall, effective immediately. This despite the fact that I flew back to Gainesville anxious to get back into the classroom. I love teaching. The delta variant was on the upswing, and I was delighted by…
BY HANK REICHMAN The state of Florida has gotten something of a reputation for zaniness. The “Florida Man” meme has been the source of both laughter and horror, as tales of outlandish behavior in the news repeatedly go viral. To read some of the most outrageous (and entertaining), go here. But these days “Florida Man”…
BY CAROLYN BETENSKY Earlier this month, I wrote of the conditions faculty were facing in COVID-denialist states. Here is an update on recent developments in one of them. At the University of Florida, members of the Faculty Senate are polling campus stakeholders (faculty members, staff, and graduate assistants) regarding a proposed vote of no confidence…
BY HANK REICHMAN Florida Governor Rick Scott declared a state of emergency; the University of Florida spent a half-million dollars on security; protesters were peaceful, if boisterous; and neo-Nazi nincompoop Richard Spencer managed to speak on the Gainesville campus for nearly two hours and even answered questions from the audience. (At one point CUNY Professor…
BY JOHN K. WILSON Today’s decision by the University of Florida to ban rental of space for an event by white supremacist Robert Spencer is a threat to free speech on campus, and the reasoning behind it poses a danger to a wide range of speech. University of Florida president W. Kent Fuchs justified his…