Florida professors are feeling the chilling effect of Ron DeSantis’ gag orders and bans on teaching about race and gender. DeSantis will not stop his crusade for censorship in K-12. Higher education knows they are his targets as well. DeSantis has an authoritarian mindset and will not be satisfied until he has squelched all teaching, study, and research into racism and gender. When does the book-burning begin?
The Miami Herald reported:
Florida university professors are facing unprecedented challenges as a spate of new laws could soon crack down on research, discourse on race and gender identity and create an environment in which employees feel their political beliefs are being scrutinized at the risk of losing tenure.
The measures are backed by Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Republican-led Legislature and are seen as just the start by some educators. Those concerns have been fueled by reports that DeSantis had drafted even more attempts to rewrite laws governing public higher education, including stripping university presidents of the ability to hire professors.
The underlying message from eight professors from four public universities across the state interviewed by the Miami Herald is this: It is not easy to be an educator in Florida. Two professors who spoke to the Herald declined to be identified out of their concern for retribution.
It isn’t just history or politics professors who are worried about the chilling effects of restrictions on academia as they head back to class later this month, it appears to ripple through many academic disciplines. Some professors even suggested that they were considering leaving Florida to teach in other states and said they knew colleagues who had similar thoughts.
“In Florida, we know that these policies have really led to increased efforts to silence and surveil academic speech,” said Emily Anderson, an assistant professor of International Relations and Intercultural Education at Florida International University. “Academic speech matters, because it’s a fundamental freedom that is really how our university system is grounded. When we have policies that threaten speech, in my view, it shadows threats to all other protected rights.”
Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/education/article263966316.html#storylink=cpy
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Ron DeSantis is small-minded and vindictive. He is manipulating laws, the courts and local governance in order to create a right wing power structure that can attack anyone that disagrees with him. He has his thumb on all levers of power, and he is trying to convince the public that educators are brainwashing young people with “woke” ideas.
DeSantis is a serious threat to democracy. In addition to telling lies and distorting truth, he is belligerent and nasty to his opponents, and he always presents himself as the aggrieved party.
Florida is ironically considering adopting a “Don’t tread on me” vanity license plate. DeSantis is the principal offender of personal freedom as he treads on freedom of speech, academic freedom, a woman’s right to choose, LGBT youth and people of color.
Someonecshould make a vanity plate that says “Don’t DeSantis on me”
Trump or get off the pot is already taken. So is Same Trump, Different Day.
Bob I know a bit about Florida as I told you and Miami 29 years I’m a very well know activist agains Charters Schooll discrimination, polices abuse ,I started an endless legal fight against evils who want destroy the constitution the good education and everything. DeSantis destroyed south Beach thanks to him South Beach look likes an desert Island, people should knows that DeSantis tried to destroyed one if not the top corporations part of the Dow Jones Industrial, Disney World , where a Kid can be a Kid ! If he treat Disney he will tried the constitution, the Difference between Trump and DeSantis , DeSantis knows how to keep the ecuánime and Trump don’t . Now we are facing a crisis in Social Security, Medicare etc . Tax Payers Money have been used to support campaigns , how charters Leader’s get rid of their crimes ? I’m still asking for the question. I won a couples sues and I’m still waiting , litigation , I’m going to donate money to clarity institutions , Teachers for America ( supporting the Public education)
Philanthropy is what I want to learn.
Philanthropy meaning?
DeSantis is one dangerous & scary dude.
Most likely more dangerous than Trump. Trump’s buffoonery, neediness, short attention span, impulsivity……we figured him out & even laughed at.
DeSantis is a machine of determined cruelty – the depth we cannot yet fully imagine.
Never DeSantis for Prez!
“a machine of determined cruelty” — yes, he so wants to outshine Trump that he is indeed navigating as a strategic machine
Trump’s one saving grace is that he was so mind-blowingly incompetent and had such an attention deficit. Rhonda Santis won’t suffer from this problem.
So, many years ago, there was a student named Martin Heidegger at the University of Freiburg, in Germany. Heidegger had a mentor in the famous professor of logic Edmund Husserl. Husserl was a world-class, renowned philosopher. Heidegger was a nobody. So, Husserl gave the young student a job. He taught him. He arranged for the publication of the incomplete book, Being and Time, that would make Heidegger famous. He arranged for a job for Heidegger as a professor at Marburg. He also arranged for Heidegger to be appointed to the faculty of the University of Freiburg on Heidegger’s death.
So, how did Heidegger repay his mentor for these astonishing services? Well, Husserl was Jewish and was forced to resign his position as a retired professor. Heidegger was appointed Rector of Freiburg, joined the Nazi Party, and gave his inaugural address, on a Nazi nationalist theme, in a hall festooned with Nazi flags. Then he barred Husserl from using the university’s library.
We know what sort of politician attempts to control what can be taught and by whom. And we know what sort goes along with this.
Never forget.
cx: on Husserl’s death
I’m hearing some truly crazy things about this Rhonda Santis person.
I think this is an opportunity for universities outside of Florida to go shopping for faculty and students. Florida schools have some fine faculty that can perhaps be more easily persuaded that snow is not that threatening. Florida is also student rich, with some of the largest universities in the country:
University of Central Florida: 61,111 undergraduates (2018-19)
Miami Dade College: 41,353 undergraduates (2018-19)
Florida International University: 41,220 (2018-19)
University of South Florida: 37,002 (2018-19)
University of Florida: 34,237 undergraduates (2018-19)
Florida is, um… unique. Which Florida college football team does this affect? I ask because I’m not entirely certain there is higher education in Florida. Or Alabama. There’s definitely higher school football.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/florida-stop-woke-act-teacher_n_62ebd29ce4b0da5ec0f252ec
Over 80 years of life I have found that authoritarian people are nothing more than bullies who, basically, are cowards who need to use force whether be physical or mental to make sure they have security in their lives.
Trump and DeSantis are prime examples of authoritarian bully cowards who must have their way or there is no way. They cannot allow people to think for themselves, live their lives as they choose, and, live in relative peace without confusion and trust. They cannot accept people who may think differently. People like Trump and DeSantis live in fear of others who are not exactly like them.