Florida faculty union slams mandated anti-semitism course review: 'Oppose any form of academic censorship'
Chancellor of the Board of Governors Ray Rodrigues laid out the course review in an email earlier this month.
“We oppose any form of academic censorship,” the United Faculty of Florida said in a press release earlier this week.
The University of Florida’s faculty union group criticized Governor Ron DeSantis’ administration’s push to investigate class materials in search of “antisemitism and anti-Israeli bias.”
In a Tuesday press release, the United Faculty of Florida said the review is a “political attack” on academic freedom.
“We oppose any form of academic censorship,” the United Faculty of Florida wrote. “UFF will stand strong to protect the educational standards and rights that are the cornerstone of our public higher education system,” it says later in the press release.
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Earlier in August, State University System of Florida Chancellor Ray Rodrigues’s ordered a review of all college courses, asking individual schools to flag content that contains anti-semitic or anti-Israel content.
“Each university should then initiate a faculty review that will need to be completed by the conclusion of the Fall Semester,” Rodrigues wrote in an email to Emily Sikes, the Interim Vice President of the Academic & Student Affairs for the State University System of Florida.
“This review should flag all instances of either antisemitism or anti-Israeli bias identified and report that information to my office,” the message continued.
Cassandra Edwards, a spokesperson for the State University System of Florida, told Campus Reform that the directive isn’t “academic censorship.”
“Academic freedom is not a license to promote antisemitism,” she said. “It is common to hear objections from the union asserting academic freedom.”
Edwards pointed out that academic freedom carries responsibilities, one of which prevents university faculty from discriminating and promoting antisemitism.
“The same faculty members who are quick to assert their academic freedom are always silent on the duties that are required to enjoy that freedom,” she said.
In addition to rejecting what it calls “academic censorship,” the faculty union called into question the basis of the course review in its press release.
“We reject the premise that this directive is a good faith effort to uncover ‘bias,’” the union said. “Instead, we recognize it as another politically motivated attack on academic freedom aimed at chilling speech and intimidating faculty and graduate teaching assistants.”
Rodrigues’s proposal does not involve a review of all courses, but of courses with certain keywords regarding Israel and Jews.
“Any course that contains the following keywords: Israel, Israeli, Palestine, Palestinian, Middle East, Zionism, Zionist, Judaism, Jewish, or Jews will be flagged for review,” the chancellor wrote. “This process will ensure that all universities are reviewing the same courses, and nothing falls through the cracks.”
[RELATED: Harvard to undergo civil rights investigation for campus anti-Semitism]
In response, the union is asking faculty members to side against the directive.
“We direct faculty and graduate teaching assistants to stand united in upholding the principles of academic freedom and continue teaching with integrity and rigor,” the union says.
“We will support them and fight for their right to academic freedom,” they continued.
Campus Reform contacted Chancellor Ray Rodrigues’s office and the United Faculty of Florida for comment. This story will be updated accordingly.
