Today the American Association of University Professors released the “Preliminary Report of the Special Committee on Academic Freedom and Florida.” You can read it here.
Here is the opening paragraph:
In January 2023, the AAUP announced the establishment of a special committee to review an apparent pattern of politically, racially, and ideologically motivated attacks on public higher education in Florida. Since then, the undersigned members of this special committee have interviewed more than forty faculty members and a former president at multiple public Florida colleges and universities, and we have immersed ourselves in a dizzying array of documents and media reports. Our efforts thus far have led us to conclude that academic freedom, tenure, and shared governance in Florida’s public colleges and universities currently face a politically and ideologically driven assault unparalleled in US history. Initiated and led by Governor Ron DeSantis and the Republican majority in the state legislature, this onslaught, if sustained, threatens the very survival of meaningful higher education in the state, with the direst implications for the entire country. Based on our work thus far, the committee believes a number of AAUP principles and standards may be implicated, including those articulated in statements and reports such as the 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure; the 1966 Statement on Government of Colleges and Universities; The Freedom to Teach; Freedom in the Classroom; the Statement on Collective Bargaining; and Faculty Participation in the Selection, Evaluation, and Retention of Administrators. Because of the massive scope of this coordinated attack and the continued unfolding of events, the committee is deferring preparation of a more complete and thorough final report, which will discuss the pertinent Association-supported standards in detail. This preliminary report highlights some initial findings and patterns.
The report found:
First:
The governor and state legislature are using their swift, aggressive, and ongoing “hostile takeover” of New College of Florida as a test case, likely for its intimidating effect. This “takeover” has proceeded through Governor DeSantis’s appointment of a slate of six highly partisan trustees, five of whom live outside the state and are publicly known as right-wing activists, to New College’s board of trustees. These appointees, together with other political allies of the governor, have announced their intention not only to transform New College into what they describe as the “Hillsdale College of the South” but also to use the takeover as a blueprint for future encroachments on public colleges and universities across the country. Although they have not yet fully achieved their goals—restructuring New College’s
administration; developing a “new core curriculum”; eliminating all diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies; and restructuring academic departments—the changes initiated by the new board are already extensive and the consequent impact on faculty, staff, and students is profound.
One New College professor told the AAUP that “you can smell fear in the air” on campus. The newly appointed board members include Ryan Anderson of the Ethics and Public Policy Center; Mark Bauerlein, a senior editor at the conservative First Things (see his recent interview with Eric Metaxas to get a sense of where he is coming from); Debra Jenks, a New College graduate and a Florida attorney; Charles Kelser, a conservative professor of government at Claremont McKenna College; anti-critical race theory pundit Christopher Rufo; Matthew Spalding, the Dean of the graduate school of government at Hillsdale College; and Jason “Eddie” Spier, the founder of a Christian charter school. Spalding and Kesler were part of Donald Trump’s “1776 Commission.” This DeSantis-appointed faction now controls the New College board.
Second:
Academic administrators throughout Florida’s public university and college systems, from the highest to the lowest levels—without exception—not only have failed to contest these attacks but have too frequently been complicit in and, in some cases, explicitly supported them. While some individuals are leaving as a matter of conscience, those who remain face the prospect of serving as pawns in DeSantis’s corrupt patronage system. Moreover, disciplinary professional organizations and accrediting bodies so far have responded unevenly or not at all to the plight of the faculty members facing serious threats to their academic freedom.
Third:
Governor DeSantis has taken executive actions and the Florida legislature has passed a series of bills that, taken collectively, constitute a systematic effort to dictate and enforce conformity with a narrow and reactionary political and ideological agenda throughout the state’s higher education system. These efforts grievously undermine basic and long-standing principles of academic freedom, tenure, and shared governance. A key component of this agenda has been an effort to destroy college and university programs that serve minority communities and to banish from classrooms ideas and information about race, gender, and sexual identity that fail to conform to the prejudices of politicians. The governor has sought to enforce these acts and impose his partisan agenda through the appointment of politically connected ideologues to the state university system’s board of governors and to the boards of trustees of individual institutions.
Fourth:
Although several pieces of legislation proposed by the DeSantis administration have been stalled by litigation challenges and others have not yet been fully implemented, the chilling effect on academic freedom of the governor’s and legislature’s efforts has already been felt by faculty and students throughout the state’s public higher education institutions. The resulting self-censorship and fear are now also spilling over into private institutions in Florida. We now elaborate on these findings, reserving a complete and more detailed assessment of the situation for our final report.
Read the entire report here. Read Inside Higher Ed‘s coverage here.
In Dec of 1947, three University of Florida students wrote to the student newspaper, the Alligator, to object to the administrative banning of Karl Marx and John Steinback in a required ungraduate class. They wrote “Dangerous trends…have finally permeated the scholastic walls of the University of Florida, thus challenging the educational freedom formerly enjoyed by the students of this institution.” Nine years later, the persecution of the intellectual left and the LGBTQ community in Florida academics by the Johns Committee would make the McCarthy hearings seems like political moderation. What DeSantis and friends are doing to education there is truly appalling, but it is most certainly not new. Since Reconstruction, conservative politicians in Florida have sought to “dictate and enforce conformity,” as the AAUP report states, through the state’s educational institutions. I commend the organization for its resistance, but what it claims to be a “ideologically driven assault unparalleled in US history” is, in fact, not even unparalleled in Florida history.
Great comment, Earl. Thanks.