I’m so ashamed of my alma mater right now that I was almost tempted to say “Go Dawgs,” which is heresy on today of all days. (Stifle yourself, Raven! :) From The Post:
The University of Florida barred three faculty members from testifying for plaintiffs in a lawsuit challenging a voting-restrictions law enthusiastically embraced by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), which activists say makes it harder for racial minorities to vote. The university’s action raises sharp concerns about academic freedom and free speech in the state.
The public university said the three faculty members — political scientists Daniel A. Smith, Michael McDonald and Sharon Wright Austin — could pose “a conflict of interest to the executive branch” and harm the school’s interests if they testified against the law signed by DeSantis in May.
“As UF is a state actor, litigation against the state is adverse to UF’s interests,” school officials said, according to documents reviewed by The Washington Post.
You know what’s “adverse to UF’s interests”? Denying professors their First Amendment rights. I’m no academic, but I suspect schools that silence professors and suck up to authoritarians tend to incur reputational damage. Maybe even to the extent that it interferes with much ballyhooed rankings.
This isn’t the first time the spineless administration and corrupt board have knuckled under to DeSantis’s authoritarian tactics and engineered rewards for his cronies.
Fortunately, the professors who are being denied their fundamental rights aren’t just rolling over and screaming “please don’t defund me, bro” like UF President Kent Fuchs does:
"The academics will file a legal challenge against the university if it does not change its stance, said Paul Donnelly, an attorney representing Smith, McDonald, and Austin."
— Michael McDonald (@ElectProject) October 30, 2021
Here’s hoping they prevail.
This latest outrage further demonstrates how dangerous DeSantis is and why those of us in Florida need to go all in on defeating him next year, not only to save our state but also to protect America. This week, wingnut media outlets rolled out a coordinated campaign to assert once again that DeSantis “won” the pandemic, never mind the 60K dead.
Wingnut media figures see this sociopath as a housetrained Trump, and they’ll work tirelessly to impose him on the nation if we’re not vigilant. We better be because DeSantis would be worse than Trump.
Open thread.