Hysteria in the Sunshine State

Students walk across the campus of New College of Florida in Sarasota on Aug. 18, 2023. (Nanette Holt/The Epoch Times)

Commentary

“What we are witnessing in Florida is an intellectual reign of terror.”

So said a law professor at Florida A&M University in an interview with a special committee of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP). It’s the first thing you read in a new report from the organization, which runs to 53 pages and contains dozens of equally panicky remarks.

What lies behind the distress is an attempt by Gov. Ron DeSantis to remove “woke” politics from public colleges and universities in the state, which has meant the closure of diversity, equity, and inclusion offices and the curbing of politicized disciplines such as gender studies. To the professorate, this looks like tyranny.

One of them told the committee, “The human toll in Florida is catastrophic.” The committee itself has alleged that the governor and his appointees show “alarming signs of authoritarian tendencies.” It quotes a previous AAUP report that characterized Mr. DeSantis’s efforts as “a politically and ideologically driven assault unparalleled in U.S. history.” The reforms amount to a “throwback to Florida’s darker past” in their “discriminatory and biased assault on the rights of racial and sexual minorities.”

One faculty member at New College of Florida has a neighbor who “threatened to come after her with a baseball bat” because of her “visible voice of resistance to the [board of trustees’] agenda.” And so on ...

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It would be easy to contest the allegations. Is eliminating gender studies at New College of Florida really like waging war on “sexual minorities”? Is there a brain-drain or at least a professor-drain in the state, as many outlets have alleged? A competent report would provide ample numbers to prove that professors are leaving and that few professors outside Florida are seeking to take their place, although the AAUP sheds no light on that.

But what would be the point of debate? The AAUP, along with scholarly organizations, countless journalists covering the Florida affair, and Gavin Newsom himself, aren’t interested in what conservatives have to say. The AAUP committee offered this report as the result of a probing investigation of what’s happening on the ground. To that end, one would expect a responsible team of inquirers to hear from all parties, including the main actors. And yet, we were never contacted, never invited to testify.

This was like police detectives never bothering to speak to prime suspects as they investigated a crime. Both of us are mentioned in the report, negatively. One is a trustee at New College; the other a fellow of the Claremont Institute, on leave from another university and working with the DeSantis administration. We are professors with decades of teaching experience, lots of books and articles, and abundant professional service behind us. We honor the old AAUP’s defense of academic freedom. It has established and long preserved broad guidelines of conduct, such as the AAUP’s classic 1940 statement of academic freedom. It kept its legitimacy by not taking sides in political conflicts. So why not ask us questions directly and add our statements to the report?

We shouldn’t make more of this episode than it deserves. The AAUP had a news conference on it in the state capitol in Tallahassee on Dec. 6 and posted the event on YouTube that morning, which six hours later had garnered a total of 101 views. But the fact that the special committee didn’t feel it necessary to ask any of the people it denounced for an interview shows just how obtusely anti-intellectual and illiberal our academic institutions have become.

Of course, liberal bias has afflicted higher education for decades, but it’s been the bias of “We are right; conservatives are wrong.” What the AAUP report shows is that anti-conservatism has reached a new level of hostility. The referees, arbitrators, and judges who are supposed to maintain level playing fields and preserve single standards have joined one side and targeted the other. One can now accuse conservatives of vicious deeds and terrorist designs without allowing the accused a chance to speak. The logic is simple: Why give demons a platform? Due process is for decent folks.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.