DeSantis's War on "Woke" Colleges Gets Even More Absurd--and Dangerous

Source: New Republic

DeSantis’s War on “Woke” Colleges Gets Even More Absurd—and Dangerous

Melissa Gira Grant
Tue, October 24, 2023 at 6:00 AM EDT·5 min read

The conservative attacks on public education in Florida have become ever more extreme under Governor Ron DeSantis. Now they’re also becoming so absurd and so totalizing that they forbid taking a stand on them in any direction. It would be a fantastic act of satire were it not also so dangerous.

Back in May, DeSantis signed into law Senate Bill 266, banning the state’s public colleges and universities from using public funds to “advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion, or promote or engage in political or social activism.” But the law, which took effect in July, never defined those terms, instead leaving that up to the Board of Governors that oversees those state schools. Now the board has done just that. In draft regulation obtained by The Chronicle of Higher Education, the board proposes that the ban apply to all campus programs and activities in which the college or university “endorses or promotes a position” on “topics that polarize or divide society among political, ideological, moral, or religious beliefs, positions, or norms.”

As University of South Florida general counsel Gerard Solis said, in a faculty senate meeting last week, “I can’t think of anything that doesn’t” polarize society along those lines. Should the board—which is composed mostly of DeSantis appointees—approve the proposed language, Florida’s public colleges and universities will be gagged so sufficiently that discussion of DeSantis’s sputtering run for president might not be permitted on campus. DeSantis is hoping to produce an environment in which his opponents second-guess how or even if they can speak out. In fact, the regulation appears to even prohibit those on campus who have received public funding from either supporting or opposing the regulation itself.

The proposed regulation is of a piece with similar moves by Florida Republicans—most famously, the “Don’t Say Gay” law and the Stop Woke Act—that are designed to be enforced not so much by the authorities as through a chilling effect in the classroom. They are also part of DeSantis’s ongoing self-branding exercise in destroying public education. “Student groups advocating for social issues that directly impact them, such as university funding, free-speech rights, and even religious freedom will be stripped of all support, while faculty will be intimidated into not sponsoring such groups on campus,” said Andrew Gothard, president of the United Faculty of Florida union.

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Read more: https://news.yahoo.com/desantis-war-woke-colleges-gets-100000513.html