You should be outraged by DeSantis' assault on academic freedom | Opinion

I trust that everyone who reads letters on this page is aware of the recent dictates that Gov. Ron DeSantis has shoved down the throats of Florida’s state colleges about the teaching of critical race theory, or very simply in the American context, racism. However, colleges can teach an American racism course as long as the syllabus includes other “theories” and are taught “objectively.”

He apparently is supported by the 28 elected Republican senators and 85 Republican representatives. Which one would openly challenge his paranoid understanding of racism? After all, all Republicans voted for legislation to keep it  out of public schools, not by name, but by description (in the W.O.K.E. Act), even though it has never been taught in Florida. The initiative should have been nicknamed “The Just in Case Act.”

The college presidents know where their $$ is buttered budgetarily.

I am neither a far lefty nor a far hard righty who uses the word “woke” sardonically. I am a non-partisan who happens to lean conservative. I have studied racism for 11 years in my dotage, age 69 to 80. I don’t understand why that topic has become a partisan one, and divisive, to boot.

American racism is not a theory, Governor. It is historical, it is factual, and it had been protected and propagated by, of all segments of society, the law itself for more than 300 years on our soil. You are categorically misinformed about the subject matter because the people whom you listen to have drawn their conclusions not from in-depth study, but from superficial briefs fed to them at Michigan’s Hillsdale College.

More from Francis Clifford:To whom it may concern: I contacted you politely; please respond | Opinion

What the governor and his education cohorts have not considered by installing this diktat are the potential negative effects on the University of Florida (UF).

Consider this: UF is among our state colleges affected by this imposition. UF is one of 63 research universities in the United States that make up the prestigious AAU, the Association of American Universities. Among all else, its institutions have prized academic freedom. Academic freedom is personified by professors who fashion courses and syllabi.

Talented faculty, tenured and untenured, tend to rotate among the AAU institutions. The more prestigious often bring grant money to their respective departments, enhancing the profile of their university.

Are you getting the picture?

As long as the autocratic policy of educational control regarding American racism ― what I would call reverse indoctrination ― exists at UF, it is in danger of losing seasoned and notable faculty, as well as grant money, and just sullying its reputation.

And likewise: What professor would want to join a faculty where he or she could not teach American racism as they would deem appropriate? Or worse, after joining the UF faculty, learn that DeSantis is imposing a restriction on another topic in their field that they wish to develop into a course?

Good professors will go elsewhere. Top scholars will stop applying for admission to the faculty.

Indeed, the rest of the state system would likewise start to slip because their partnerships with UF would suffer.

The effects at UF will ultimately be felt beyond the subject of racism.

If you have not checked, UF is now ranked among the top 10 public universities in the country. The university, and we citizens, would like to keep it that way.

If you are outraged by this frontal assault on academic freedom in higher education, send an email to your state senator and state representative.

Francis J. Clifford, a retired attorney, lives in Suntree.

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: You should be outraged by DeSantis' assault on academic freedom