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In Florida, DeSantis’s plans for colleges rattle some academics

cigaretteman

HR King
May 29, 2001
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In his efforts to remake higher education in Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed laws that alter the tenure system, remove Florida universities from commonly accepted accreditation practices, and mandate annual “viewpoint diversity surveys” from students and faculty.

DeSantis (R) also pushed through legislation he dubbed the “Stop WOKE Act” that regulates what schools, including universities, and workplaces can teach about race and identity. The legislation — which went into effect Friday — already faces a legal challenge.
The lawsuit argues that the act violates constitutional rights and would have a dangerous chilling effect on academic freedom. A judge is expected to rule soon on a request by University of Central Florida associate professor Robert Cassanello to block the law. This week, the judge denied similar requests from other plaintiffs, saying they lacked standing. The state has asked a judge to dismiss the suit.


Cassanello, who teaches classes in civil rights movements, Jim Crow America, and emancipation and Reconstruction argued that the law “restricts his ability to accurately and fully teach these subjects.”
Meanwhile, the board of governors for Florida’s public university system took initial steps Thursday to approve regulations for enforcing the law, with potential penalties including discipline and termination for employees who do not comply. The law also ties some university funding to compliance.
DeSantis has said he wants to prevent the state’s colleges and universities from becoming “hotbeds for stale ideologies” and from developing “intellectually repressive environments.”

Some welcome his reforms. But the measures have other faculty and academic leaders concerned. They also worry that Republicans intend to go even further to exert political control over public higher education — and that the conflicts roiling Florida signal fights to come in other states.


Critics of DeSantis’s efforts pointed to draft legislation that would have given to political appointees the power to hire and fire, and to veto school budgets. The proposals for the most part never made it into bills but were disclosed for a public-records request and published in the newsletter Seeking Rents.
“It is no exaggeration to say that the DeSantis administration represents an existential threat to higher education in the state of Florida,” said J. Andrew Gothard, the statewide president of the United Faculty of Florida and an instructor in the English department at Florida Atlantic University.

DeSantis’s office did not respond to questions about the draft legislation and whether the governor planned to propose the measures again.
State Rep. Fentrice Driskell, the leader of the Florida House Democratic caucus, said the proposals floated by DeSantis would be “a gross misstep” and would damage the state’s reputation and rankings in higher education.


“This would erode the autonomy of our public universities and colleges. It would be so far out of alignment with the entire purpose of people attending college in the first place, to prepare them to be free thinkers and to compete in this dynamic and globalized world,” Driskell said.
Other experts welcomed the suggestions as long-overdue pushback on liberal universities and saw the effort as an indicator of a more urgent need to reform higher education nationally.

“It is not hard to preserve academic freedom while introducing genuine intellectual diversity to campus,” Adam Kissel, a former Education Department official and Heritage Foundation visiting fellow, wrote in an email. “In general this is by adding voices rather than restricting them.”
Kissel, whose focus at Heritage is on higher-education reform, also praised the “individual freedom” act that took effect Friday. “It permits full classroom discussion of any issue, using any material, only so long as the professor does not say officially that for the purposes of the class, a certain position is to be deemed true.”


But Cassanello, who is president of United Faculty of Florida at the University of Central Florida, said faculty members are worried. “People are really concerned about their freedom in the classroom,” he said. “A lot of this legislation is unclear about where the lines are.”
College faculty are fighting back against state bills on critical race theory
DeSantis, who attended Yale and also graduated from Harvard Law School, has been a staunch supporter of technical training and certification programs in Florida, noting the need for people who learn trades or skills in industries such as trucking logistics and medical assistance.

In June, DeSantis lauded work experience over “a magic piece of paper which likely would have cost too much anyway” when he signed a law allowing state agencies to substitute work experience, including military experience, for college degrees in hiring.


“Give me somebody that served eight years in the Navy or the Marine Corps. That education is going to be much more beneficial and pertinent than someone that went $100,000 in debt to get a degree in zombie studies,” DeSantis said.
He has also pledged to keep tuition at public colleges and universities low, and this week, he changed rules for the state’s Bright Future scholarships to allow work experience by high school students to count toward required community service.
Judge rules for professors in University of Florida academic freedom case
Still, his proposals to rein in the independence of those schools have alarmed some academics in Florida and beyond. In other parts of the country, some legislators and governors are pushing for more autonomy over hiring and firing state employees. Tenure is coming under increasing criticism. And a number of states have passed bills to prevent colleges from teaching “divisive concepts.”
College faculty are fighting back against state bills on critical race theory
Florida may be leading the charge, said Fairfield University mathematics professor Irene Mulvey, the president of the American Association of University Professors, adding that Texas is not far behind and that many other states are following suit. “It’s a trend in the larger culture wars … where you see these politicians trying to throw red meat to the base and stir people up.”



University of Tennessee education professor Robert Kelchen said the most startling change in Florida is the recent legislation that will require universities periodically to change accreditors. No other state has done anything remotely similar, he said. Much is at stake; if a college is not properly accredited, its students cannot get federal financial aid.
Some higher-education scholars and faculty critics said lawmakers appeared not to understand the accreditation process, in which institutions undergo lengthy voluntary reviews, and that requiring schools to seek new accreditors would waste time and money.
Accreditation does not typically rise to this sort of public awareness, said Kevin Kinser, a professor of education policy studies at Pennsylvania State University. When it does, he said, it is often because politicians say, “ ‘Wait a minute. Who are these people telling me what I need to do with my colleges and universities?’ ”



But Kissel said the Florida law is common sense. “Just as companies should change financial auditors so that they do not get too cozy with one firm, universities should regularly change accreditors,” he said.
The legislation was passed after the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges raised concerns about academic freedom at the University of Florida. Three professors sued the university after they initially were told they could not testify in a lawsuit challenging a voting-restrictions law that DeSantis had championed. Three additional faculty members who wanted to speak out against other DeSantis policies, such as a ban on mask mandates, later joined the case. A judge ruled in favor of the professors this year.


 
In his efforts to remake higher education in Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed laws that alter the tenure system, remove Florida universities from commonly accepted accreditation practices, and mandate annual “viewpoint diversity surveys” from students and faculty.

DeSantis (R) also pushed through legislation he dubbed the “Stop WOKE Act” that regulates what schools, including universities, and workplaces can teach about race and identity. The legislation — which went into effect Friday — already faces a legal challenge.
The lawsuit argues that the act violates constitutional rights and would have a dangerous chilling effect on academic freedom. A judge is expected to rule soon on a request by University of Central Florida associate professor Robert Cassanello to block the law. This week, the judge denied similar requests from other plaintiffs, saying they lacked standing. The state has asked a judge to dismiss the suit.


Cassanello, who teaches classes in civil rights movements, Jim Crow America, and emancipation and Reconstruction argued that the law “restricts his ability to accurately and fully teach these subjects.”
Meanwhile, the board of governors for Florida’s public university system took initial steps Thursday to approve regulations for enforcing the law, with potential penalties including discipline and termination for employees who do not comply. The law also ties some university funding to compliance.
DeSantis has said he wants to prevent the state’s colleges and universities from becoming “hotbeds for stale ideologies” and from developing “intellectually repressive environments.”

Some welcome his reforms. But the measures have other faculty and academic leaders concerned. They also worry that Republicans intend to go even further to exert political control over public higher education — and that the conflicts roiling Florida signal fights to come in other states.


Critics of DeSantis’s efforts pointed to draft legislation that would have given to political appointees the power to hire and fire, and to veto school budgets. The proposals for the most part never made it into bills but were disclosed for a public-records request and published in the newsletter Seeking Rents.
“It is no exaggeration to say that the DeSantis administration represents an existential threat to higher education in the state of Florida,” said J. Andrew Gothard, the statewide president of the United Faculty of Florida and an instructor in the English department at Florida Atlantic University.

DeSantis’s office did not respond to questions about the draft legislation and whether the governor planned to propose the measures again.
State Rep. Fentrice Driskell, the leader of the Florida House Democratic caucus, said the proposals floated by DeSantis would be “a gross misstep” and would damage the state’s reputation and rankings in higher education.


“This would erode the autonomy of our public universities and colleges. It would be so far out of alignment with the entire purpose of people attending college in the first place, to prepare them to be free thinkers and to compete in this dynamic and globalized world,” Driskell said.
Other experts welcomed the suggestions as long-overdue pushback on liberal universities and saw the effort as an indicator of a more urgent need to reform higher education nationally.

“It is not hard to preserve academic freedom while introducing genuine intellectual diversity to campus,” Adam Kissel, a former Education Department official and Heritage Foundation visiting fellow, wrote in an email. “In general this is by adding voices rather than restricting them.”
Kissel, whose focus at Heritage is on higher-education reform, also praised the “individual freedom” act that took effect Friday. “It permits full classroom discussion of any issue, using any material, only so long as the professor does not say officially that for the purposes of the class, a certain position is to be deemed true.”


But Cassanello, who is president of United Faculty of Florida at the University of Central Florida, said faculty members are worried. “People are really concerned about their freedom in the classroom,” he said. “A lot of this legislation is unclear about where the lines are.”
College faculty are fighting back against state bills on critical race theory
DeSantis, who attended Yale and also graduated from Harvard Law School, has been a staunch supporter of technical training and certification programs in Florida, noting the need for people who learn trades or skills in industries such as trucking logistics and medical assistance.

In June, DeSantis lauded work experience over “a magic piece of paper which likely would have cost too much anyway” when he signed a law allowing state agencies to substitute work experience, including military experience, for college degrees in hiring.


“Give me somebody that served eight years in the Navy or the Marine Corps. That education is going to be much more beneficial and pertinent than someone that went $100,000 in debt to get a degree in zombie studies,” DeSantis said.
He has also pledged to keep tuition at public colleges and universities low, and this week, he changed rules for the state’s Bright Future scholarships to allow work experience by high school students to count toward required community service.
Judge rules for professors in University of Florida academic freedom case
Still, his proposals to rein in the independence of those schools have alarmed some academics in Florida and beyond. In other parts of the country, some legislators and governors are pushing for more autonomy over hiring and firing state employees. Tenure is coming under increasing criticism. And a number of states have passed bills to prevent colleges from teaching “divisive concepts.”
College faculty are fighting back against state bills on critical race theory
Florida may be leading the charge, said Fairfield University mathematics professor Irene Mulvey, the president of the American Association of University Professors, adding that Texas is not far behind and that many other states are following suit. “It’s a trend in the larger culture wars … where you see these politicians trying to throw red meat to the base and stir people up.”



University of Tennessee education professor Robert Kelchen said the most startling change in Florida is the recent legislation that will require universities periodically to change accreditors. No other state has done anything remotely similar, he said. Much is at stake; if a college is not properly accredited, its students cannot get federal financial aid.
Some higher-education scholars and faculty critics said lawmakers appeared not to understand the accreditation process, in which institutions undergo lengthy voluntary reviews, and that requiring schools to seek new accreditors would waste time and money.
Accreditation does not typically rise to this sort of public awareness, said Kevin Kinser, a professor of education policy studies at Pennsylvania State University. When it does, he said, it is often because politicians say, “ ‘Wait a minute. Who are these people telling me what I need to do with my colleges and universities?’ ”



But Kissel said the Florida law is common sense. “Just as companies should change financial auditors so that they do not get too cozy with one firm, universities should regularly change accreditors,” he said.
The legislation was passed after the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges raised concerns about academic freedom at the University of Florida. Three professors sued the university after they initially were told they could not testify in a lawsuit challenging a voting-restrictions law that DeSantis had championed. Three additional faculty members who wanted to speak out against other DeSantis policies, such as a ban on mask mandates, later joined the case. A judge ruled in favor of the professors this year.


about the only thing i like in that mishmash is the surveys. a little data never hurt anybody, and you don't actually have to do anything about it.

That said, honestly, I don't get too worked up about rattling academics, because they are generally chicken little types who live in a cushy world. A lot of academics were rattled when Mitch Daniels became president of Purdue. But he did a hell of a job there, to the great benefit of students and their families, without the sky in fact falling.

It's a shame Daniels' wife won't let him run for president.
 
about the only thing i like in that mishmash is the surveys. a little data never hurt anybody, and you don't actually have to do anything about it.

That said, honestly, I don't get too worked up about rattling academics, because they are generally chicken little types who live in a cushy world. A lot of academics were rattled when Mitch Daniels became president of Purdue. But he did a hell of a job there, to the great benefit of students and their families, without the sky in fact falling.

It's a shame Daniels' wife won't let him run for president.
Sure, what's to get rattled about - just a governor in the deep south deciding "what schools, including universities, and workplaces can teach about race and identity." Where's the harm in that?
 
Sure, what's to get rattled about - just a governor in the deep south deciding "what schools, including universities, and workplaces can teach about race and identity." Where's the harm in that?
well, as i mentioned, those things were among the things that i disliked. my point about academics was not florida specific.
 
In his efforts to remake higher education in Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed laws that alter the tenure system, remove Florida universities from commonly accepted accreditation practices, and mandate annual “viewpoint diversity surveys” from students and faculty.

DeSantis (R) also pushed through legislation he dubbed the “Stop WOKE Act” that regulates what schools, including universities, and workplaces can teach about race and identity. The legislation — which went into effect Friday — already faces a legal challenge.
The lawsuit argues that the act violates constitutional rights and would have a dangerous chilling effect on academic freedom. A judge is expected to rule soon on a request by University of Central Florida associate professor Robert Cassanello to block the law. This week, the judge denied similar requests from other plaintiffs, saying they lacked standing. The state has asked a judge to dismiss the suit.


Cassanello, who teaches classes in civil rights movements, Jim Crow America, and emancipation and Reconstruction argued that the law “restricts his ability to accurately and fully teach these subjects.”
Meanwhile, the board of governors for Florida’s public university system took initial steps Thursday to approve regulations for enforcing the law, with potential penalties including discipline and termination for employees who do not comply. The law also ties some university funding to compliance.
DeSantis has said he wants to prevent the state’s colleges and universities from becoming “hotbeds for stale ideologies” and from developing “intellectually repressive environments.”

Some welcome his reforms. But the measures have other faculty and academic leaders concerned. They also worry that Republicans intend to go even further to exert political control over public higher education — and that the conflicts roiling Florida signal fights to come in other states.


Critics of DeSantis’s efforts pointed to draft legislation that would have given to political appointees the power to hire and fire, and to veto school budgets. The proposals for the most part never made it into bills but were disclosed for a public-records request and published in the newsletter Seeking Rents.
“It is no exaggeration to say that the DeSantis administration represents an existential threat to higher education in the state of Florida,” said J. Andrew Gothard, the statewide president of the United Faculty of Florida and an instructor in the English department at Florida Atlantic University.

DeSantis’s office did not respond to questions about the draft legislation and whether the governor planned to propose the measures again.
State Rep. Fentrice Driskell, the leader of the Florida House Democratic caucus, said the proposals floated by DeSantis would be “a gross misstep” and would damage the state’s reputation and rankings in higher education.


“This would erode the autonomy of our public universities and colleges. It would be so far out of alignment with the entire purpose of people attending college in the first place, to prepare them to be free thinkers and to compete in this dynamic and globalized world,” Driskell said.
Other experts welcomed the suggestions as long-overdue pushback on liberal universities and saw the effort as an indicator of a more urgent need to reform higher education nationally.

“It is not hard to preserve academic freedom while introducing genuine intellectual diversity to campus,” Adam Kissel, a former Education Department official and Heritage Foundation visiting fellow, wrote in an email. “In general this is by adding voices rather than restricting them.”
Kissel, whose focus at Heritage is on higher-education reform, also praised the “individual freedom” act that took effect Friday. “It permits full classroom discussion of any issue, using any material, only so long as the professor does not say officially that for the purposes of the class, a certain position is to be deemed true.”


But Cassanello, who is president of United Faculty of Florida at the University of Central Florida, said faculty members are worried. “People are really concerned about their freedom in the classroom,” he said. “A lot of this legislation is unclear about where the lines are.”
College faculty are fighting back against state bills on critical race theory
DeSantis, who attended Yale and also graduated from Harvard Law School, has been a staunch supporter of technical training and certification programs in Florida, noting the need for people who learn trades or skills in industries such as trucking logistics and medical assistance.

In June, DeSantis lauded work experience over “a magic piece of paper which likely would have cost too much anyway” when he signed a law allowing state agencies to substitute work experience, including military experience, for college degrees in hiring.


“Give me somebody that served eight years in the Navy or the Marine Corps. That education is going to be much more beneficial and pertinent than someone that went $100,000 in debt to get a degree in zombie studies,” DeSantis said.
He has also pledged to keep tuition at public colleges and universities low, and this week, he changed rules for the state’s Bright Future scholarships to allow work experience by high school students to count toward required community service.
Judge rules for professors in University of Florida academic freedom case
Still, his proposals to rein in the independence of those schools have alarmed some academics in Florida and beyond. In other parts of the country, some legislators and governors are pushing for more autonomy over hiring and firing state employees. Tenure is coming under increasing criticism. And a number of states have passed bills to prevent colleges from teaching “divisive concepts.”
College faculty are fighting back against state bills on critical race theory
Florida may be leading the charge, said Fairfield University mathematics professor Irene Mulvey, the president of the American Association of University Professors, adding that Texas is not far behind and that many other states are following suit. “It’s a trend in the larger culture wars … where you see these politicians trying to throw red meat to the base and stir people up.”



University of Tennessee education professor Robert Kelchen said the most startling change in Florida is the recent legislation that will require universities periodically to change accreditors. No other state has done anything remotely similar, he said. Much is at stake; if a college is not properly accredited, its students cannot get federal financial aid.
Some higher-education scholars and faculty critics said lawmakers appeared not to understand the accreditation process, in which institutions undergo lengthy voluntary reviews, and that requiring schools to seek new accreditors would waste time and money.
Accreditation does not typically rise to this sort of public awareness, said Kevin Kinser, a professor of education policy studies at Pennsylvania State University. When it does, he said, it is often because politicians say, “ ‘Wait a minute. Who are these people telling me what I need to do with my colleges and universities?’ ”



But Kissel said the Florida law is common sense. “Just as companies should change financial auditors so that they do not get too cozy with one firm, universities should regularly change accreditors,” he said.
The legislation was passed after the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges raised concerns about academic freedom at the University of Florida. Three professors sued the university after they initially were told they could not testify in a lawsuit challenging a voting-restrictions law that DeSantis had championed. Three additional faculty members who wanted to speak out against other DeSantis policies, such as a ban on mask mandates, later joined the case. A judge ruled in favor of the professors this year.



Fascists ALWAYS go for the universities first, clamp down, make arrests, intimidate faculty, cut funding, make subservient to the corporations and elites who hate free thinking and freedom.
 
In his efforts to remake higher education in Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed laws that alter the tenure system, remove Florida universities from commonly accepted accreditation practices, and mandate annual “viewpoint diversity surveys” from students and faculty.

DeSantis (R) also pushed through legislation he dubbed the “Stop WOKE Act” that regulates what schools, including universities, and workplaces can teach about race and identity. The legislation — which went into effect Friday — already faces a legal challenge.
The lawsuit argues that the act violates constitutional rights and would have a dangerous chilling effect on academic freedom. A judge is expected to rule soon on a request by University of Central Florida associate professor Robert Cassanello to block the law. This week, the judge denied similar requests from other plaintiffs, saying they lacked standing. The state has asked a judge to dismiss the suit.


Cassanello, who teaches classes in civil rights movements, Jim Crow America, and emancipation and Reconstruction argued that the law “restricts his ability to accurately and fully teach these subjects.”
Meanwhile, the board of governors for Florida’s public university system took initial steps Thursday to approve regulations for enforcing the law, with potential penalties including discipline and termination for employees who do not comply. The law also ties some university funding to compliance.
DeSantis has said he wants to prevent the state’s colleges and universities from becoming “hotbeds for stale ideologies” and from developing “intellectually repressive environments.”

Some welcome his reforms. But the measures have other faculty and academic leaders concerned. They also worry that Republicans intend to go even further to exert political control over public higher education — and that the conflicts roiling Florida signal fights to come in other states.


Critics of DeSantis’s efforts pointed to draft legislation that would have given to political appointees the power to hire and fire, and to veto school budgets. The proposals for the most part never made it into bills but were disclosed for a public-records request and published in the newsletter Seeking Rents.
“It is no exaggeration to say that the DeSantis administration represents an existential threat to higher education in the state of Florida,” said J. Andrew Gothard, the statewide president of the United Faculty of Florida and an instructor in the English department at Florida Atlantic University.

DeSantis’s office did not respond to questions about the draft legislation and whether the governor planned to propose the measures again.
State Rep. Fentrice Driskell, the leader of the Florida House Democratic caucus, said the proposals floated by DeSantis would be “a gross misstep” and would damage the state’s reputation and rankings in higher education.


“This would erode the autonomy of our public universities and colleges. It would be so far out of alignment with the entire purpose of people attending college in the first place, to prepare them to be free thinkers and to compete in this dynamic and globalized world,” Driskell said.
Other experts welcomed the suggestions as long-overdue pushback on liberal universities and saw the effort as an indicator of a more urgent need to reform higher education nationally.

“It is not hard to preserve academic freedom while introducing genuine intellectual diversity to campus,” Adam Kissel, a former Education Department official and Heritage Foundation visiting fellow, wrote in an email. “In general this is by adding voices rather than restricting them.”
Kissel, whose focus at Heritage is on higher-education reform, also praised the “individual freedom” act that took effect Friday. “It permits full classroom discussion of any issue, using any material, only so long as the professor does not say officially that for the purposes of the class, a certain position is to be deemed true.”


But Cassanello, who is president of United Faculty of Florida at the University of Central Florida, said faculty members are worried. “People are really concerned about their freedom in the classroom,” he said. “A lot of this legislation is unclear about where the lines are.”
College faculty are fighting back against state bills on critical race theory
DeSantis, who attended Yale and also graduated from Harvard Law School, has been a staunch supporter of technical training and certification programs in Florida, noting the need for people who learn trades or skills in industries such as trucking logistics and medical assistance.

In June, DeSantis lauded work experience over “a magic piece of paper which likely would have cost too much anyway” when he signed a law allowing state agencies to substitute work experience, including military experience, for college degrees in hiring.


“Give me somebody that served eight years in the Navy or the Marine Corps. That education is going to be much more beneficial and pertinent than someone that went $100,000 in debt to get a degree in zombie studies,” DeSantis said.
He has also pledged to keep tuition at public colleges and universities low, and this week, he changed rules for the state’s Bright Future scholarships to allow work experience by high school students to count toward required community service.
Judge rules for professors in University of Florida academic freedom case
Still, his proposals to rein in the independence of those schools have alarmed some academics in Florida and beyond. In other parts of the country, some legislators and governors are pushing for more autonomy over hiring and firing state employees. Tenure is coming under increasing criticism. And a number of states have passed bills to prevent colleges from teaching “divisive concepts.”
College faculty are fighting back against state bills on critical race theory
Florida may be leading the charge, said Fairfield University mathematics professor Irene Mulvey, the president of the American Association of University Professors, adding that Texas is not far behind and that many other states are following suit. “It’s a trend in the larger culture wars … where you see these politicians trying to throw red meat to the base and stir people up.”



University of Tennessee education professor Robert Kelchen said the most startling change in Florida is the recent legislation that will require universities periodically to change accreditors. No other state has done anything remotely similar, he said. Much is at stake; if a college is not properly accredited, its students cannot get federal financial aid.
Some higher-education scholars and faculty critics said lawmakers appeared not to understand the accreditation process, in which institutions undergo lengthy voluntary reviews, and that requiring schools to seek new accreditors would waste time and money.
Accreditation does not typically rise to this sort of public awareness, said Kevin Kinser, a professor of education policy studies at Pennsylvania State University. When it does, he said, it is often because politicians say, “ ‘Wait a minute. Who are these people telling me what I need to do with my colleges and universities?’ ”



But Kissel said the Florida law is common sense. “Just as companies should change financial auditors so that they do not get too cozy with one firm, universities should regularly change accreditors,” he said.
The legislation was passed after the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges raised concerns about academic freedom at the University of Florida. Three professors sued the university after they initially were told they could not testify in a lawsuit challenging a voting-restrictions law that DeSantis had championed. Three additional faculty members who wanted to speak out against other DeSantis policies, such as a ban on mask mandates, later joined the case. A judge ruled in favor of the professors this year.


This is why he is more dangerous than biff.
 
FWgiMBPVUAEkCMU


FWgiNjzUcAAqzWS

 
If (or when) the world ends in armageddon, it will be not be because of any god, but fundamentalists who are so ****ing narcissistic and childish and dim that they will bring it about themselves, so impatient as they are to meet their maker. they'll drag the majority of the world along into a hell of their own making. disgusting, terrifying, ignorant, monstrous people who think they're good and doing good.
 
That said, honestly, I don't get too worked up about rattling academics, because they are generally chicken little types who live in a cushy world. A lot of academics were rattled when Mitch Daniels became president of Purdue. But he did a hell of a job there, to the great benefit of students and their families, without the sky in fact falling.

The Purdue faculty were not being chicken littles as Daniels had set in motion a devastating decade for Indiana K-12 public schools. We are still living with the consequences of his actions today. The fact that Daniels has been an excellent president at Purdue is an impressive 180 degree shift from how he comported himself as governor as it relates to education. And I say this as someone as a Purdue grad who worked in his state administration.

It's a shame Daniels' wife won't let him run for president.
Daniels and his wife have a past that precluded him from running for president in 2008/2012. After Trump, most people wouldn’t bat an eye today.
 
Hillsdale College is evangelical. That's where VanValkenburg transferred in from:

Mission Statement Hillsdale College is an independent institution of higher learning founded in 1844 by men and women “grateful to God for the inestimable blessings” resulting from civil and religious liberty and “believing that the diffusion of learning is essential to the perpetuity of these blessings.” It pursues the stated object of the founders: “to furnish all persons who wish, irrespective of nation, color, or sex, a literary, scientific, [and] theological education” outstanding among American colleges “and to combine with this such moral and social instruction as will best develop the minds and improve the hearts of its pupils.” As a nonsectarian Christian institution, Hillsdale College maintains “by precept and example” the immemorial teachings and practices of the Christian faith. The College also considers itself a trustee of our Western philosophical and theological inheritance tracing to Athens and Jerusalem, a heritage finding its clearest expression in the American experiment of self-government under law. By training the young in the liberal arts, Hillsdale College prepares students to become leaders worthy of that legacy. By encouraging the scholarship of its faculty, it contributes to the preservation of that legacy for future generations. By publicly defending that legacy, it enlists the aid of other friends of free civilization and thus secures the conditions of its own survival and independence.
 


Above mentioned in the first minute or so if this video....update - I finally listened to the entire video. It is good. The New Yorker writer says that, not surprisingly, DeFascist is terrible with people one on one. He also says that Ruble Ron and FauxNews coordinate multiple times a day.

 
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about the only thing i like in that mishmash is the surveys. a little data never hurt anybody, and you don't actually have to do anything about it.

That said, honestly, I don't get too worked up about rattling academics, because they are generally chicken little types who live in a cushy world. A lot of academics were rattled when Mitch Daniels became president of Purdue. But he did a hell of a job there, to the great benefit of students and their families, without the sky in fact falling.

It's a shame Daniels' wife won't let him run for president.
Mitch Daniels overall was a a good governor for Indiana and president at Purdue. However, he too had his own controversy with education in the state. He was one of the original founders of the Cancel Culture.

The Governor's Bad List​



Mitch Daniels, while governor of Indiana, tried to ban the teaching of Howard Zinn and sought to cut funds to program led by a professor who was a critic, AP investigation reveals. UPDATE: Daniels responds.

By​

Scott Jaschik

July 17, 2013

daniels-m12_0.jpg

Mitch Daniels
Mitch Daniels, as an unconventional choice to become Purdue University's president, has repeatedly pledged his strong commitment to academic freedom. And many professors -- including some who had questioned the wisdom of appointing a governor as university president -- have given him high marks for the start of his work at Purdue.
But on Monday, the Associated Press published an article based on e-mail records it obtained under Indiana's open records laws. Those e-mail records showed Daniels, while governor of Indiana, asking that no public universities teach the work of Howard Zinn, seeking a statewide investigation into "what is credit-worthy" to see that similar works were not being taught for credit, and considering ways to cut state funds to a program led by a professor who had criticized him.
It is not unheard of, of course, for governors to periodically speak out against controversial professors or books (although most academics would prefer that governors not do so). But the case of Daniels appears different in that he didn't speak out, but rather exchanged e-mail messages with state education officials about how to take action against certain works and professors. While Daniels is known as a strong fiscal conservative (as a politician and university leaders), his reputation has also been as someone who was more interested in balancing budgets than in waging culture wars.
In a statement to the AP, Daniels indicated that his e-mail messages were only about elementary and secondary schools, but the AP descriptions of the e-mails suggest otherwise. While the e-mails show concern about how teachers were being trained, that training was going on at universities.
The first e-mail discussed is about Zinn, a longtime Boston University professor best known for 1980 book, A People's History of the United States, which describes American history from the perspective of black people, women, low-income workers and others whom Zinn argued were ignored in more mainstream history. The book has sold well through several editions, and earned Zinn generations of student and faculty fans, generally from the left. He has also been repeatedly criticized by conservatives (and by some who are not conservative, but who have argued that Zinn oversimplified many issues).
Shortly after Zinn died in 2010, Daniels e-mailed various education officials about Zinn, the AP said. His e-mail said: "This terrible anti-American academic has finally passed away. The obits and commentaries mentioned his book A People’s History of the United States is the ‘textbook of choice in high schools and colleges around the country.’ It is a truly execrable, anti-factual piece of disinformation that misstates American history on every page. Can someone assure me that it is not in use anywhere in Indiana? If it is, how do we get rid of it before more young people are force-fed a totally false version of our history?"
When an aide responded by saying that a course at Indiana University did use Zinn's work, Daniels wrote that something should be done about it. "This crap should not be accepted for any credit by the state. No student will be better taught because someone sat through this session. Which board has jurisdiction over what counts and what doesn’t?” Daniels wrote.
The e-mails show Daniels endorsing a plan to have Teresa Lubbers, the commissioner of higher education, review courses throughout the state, while the State Board of Education conducted a similar review. Wrote Daniels in approving the plan: "Go for it. Disqualify propaganda and highlight (if there is any) the more useful offerings."
The AP article does not indicate whether Lubbers carried out the plan. She did not respond to e-mail messages from Inside Higher Ed Tuesday night. [UPDATE: On Wednesday, Lubbers said that she was never asked to conduct the survey of courses described in the e-mail exchanges, and that her office did not conduct such a survey.]
UPDATE: Wednesday morning, after this article was published without this paragraph, Daniels reached out to Inside Higher Ed to discuss the AP article. He said that his concern about Zinn was appropriate because elementary and secondary school teachers were taking professional development courses at public universities that could have been teaching Zinn's work, and he did not want these teachers -- and their students -- exposed to "falsifications" of history. He said that there was "no implication for academic freedom" from his inquiries, and that no efforts were made to stop Zinn from being taught in higher education, despite what he characterized as a few e-mail messages that he had long forgotten about before the AP article. "If Howard Zinn had been a tenured professor on this campus, I would have defended anything he would have wanted to write, but not to be immune from criticism," Daniels said, adding that "no one credible defended his versions of history, and neither does academic freedom confer an entitlement to have one's work used in the k-12 public system."
While Zinn was dead when Daniels sought to have his books no longer taught, another target of the governor remains very much alive. He is Charles Little, a professor of education at Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis and a frequent critic of Daniels's education policies. In a 2009 e-mail, the AP reported, Daniels asked that Little's program be audited and potentially cut from receiving state funds. Little did not respond to an e-mail message from Inside Higher Ed seeking comment.
The AP has now released the e-mails' texts, which include swipes at the National Endowment for the Humanities (for sponsoring a seminar where Zinn's works were discussed) and at Indiana University. One Daniels adviser wrote during the exchanges that "this is why my children will not go to IU."
But while the e-mail exchanges included such bashing of Indiana University, they did not note that Purdue -- where Daniels is now president -- actually has taught Zinn as well, at least per our search of the university's website. Two chapters of A People's History can be found on a fall 2010 English course syllabus and three chapters are on a syllabus for a study abroad program in Honduras.
Professors took to Twitter Tuesday night to express outrage. Among the comments: "Who better to run a university than someone who despises the entire concept?" and "I'd never assign Howard Zinn, but I'd fight like heck to preserve my right to assign him."
 
No Apologies for Teaching Zinn
One professor who teaches Zinn's People's History every year -- and who intends to go on doing so -- is Robert J. Helfenbein, director of the Center for Urban and Multicultural Education at Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis. In an interview Tuesday night with Inside Higher Ed, Helfenbein said he was "shocked and concerned" that a governor could be trying to dictate which works are taught by professors.
Helfenbein also said that Daniels was overstating the extent to which Zinn's ideas pervade schools and colleges. He teaches Zinn in a course for future secondary teachers in social studies. Most of the students are undergraduates, and the vast majority have never heard of Zinn and relatively few are familiar with his ideas, Helfenbein said.
"Part of what I try to teach future social studies teachers is multiple perspectives of history, so even those who disagree with it see a worth in reading a historian take on this very different perspective" from what they have learned before. He said that students write a "reaction paper" to Zinn, and that grading is based on the reasoning and writing, not whether they endorse Zinn. "They can agree with it, disagree with it, agree with some sections and not others, and if they argue well, they get an A," he said. Students tend to emerge with a range of views on Zinn's take on history, he said.
Helfenbein said teachers need to be comfortable teaching books with a range of views, and not fear that they have to ban those they disagree with, or that the governor doesn't like. "I think these e-mails show a massive over-reach of political power in trying to say what teachers should teach and what academic freedom is about in higher education," he said. Faculty members at Purdue, he said, "should be very, very concerned."

Read more by​

Scott Jaschik

https://www.insidehighered.com/news...h-daniels-governor-tried-ban-howard-zinn-book
 
about the only thing i like in that mishmash is the surveys. a little data never hurt anybody, and you don't actually have to do anything about it.

That said, honestly, I don't get too worked up about rattling academics, because they are generally chicken little types who live in a cushy world. A lot of academics were rattled when Mitch Daniels became president of Purdue. But he did a hell of a job there, to the great benefit of students and their families, without the sky in fact falling.

It's a shame Daniels' wife won't let him run for president.
Mitch is a RINO. He wouldn’t be welcome in the cult. I think he would be an acceptable president. It will never happen. That being said, this would never end at surveys, and is yet another example of a solution in search of a problem, and Lib owning.
 
In his efforts to remake higher education in Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed laws that alter the tenure system, remove Florida universities from commonly accepted accreditation practices, and mandate annual “viewpoint diversity surveys” from students and faculty.

DeSantis (R) also pushed through legislation he dubbed the “Stop WOKE Act” that regulates what schools, including universities, and workplaces can teach about race and identity. The legislation — which went into effect Friday — already faces a legal challenge.
The lawsuit argues that the act violates constitutional rights and would have a dangerous chilling effect on academic freedom. A judge is expected to rule soon on a request by University of Central Florida associate professor Robert Cassanello to block the law. This week, the judge denied similar requests from other plaintiffs, saying they lacked standing. The state has asked a judge to dismiss the suit.


Cassanello, who teaches classes in civil rights movements, Jim Crow America, and emancipation and Reconstruction argued that the law “restricts his ability to accurately and fully teach these subjects.”
Meanwhile, the board of governors for Florida’s public university system took initial steps Thursday to approve regulations for enforcing the law, with potential penalties including discipline and termination for employees who do not comply. The law also ties some university funding to compliance.
DeSantis has said he wants to prevent the state’s colleges and universities from becoming “hotbeds for stale ideologies” and from developing “intellectually repressive environments.”

Some welcome his reforms. But the measures have other faculty and academic leaders concerned. They also worry that Republicans intend to go even further to exert political control over public higher education — and that the conflicts roiling Florida signal fights to come in other states.


Critics of DeSantis’s efforts pointed to draft legislation that would have given to political appointees the power to hire and fire, and to veto school budgets. The proposals for the most part never made it into bills but were disclosed for a public-records request and published in the newsletter Seeking Rents.
“It is no exaggeration to say that the DeSantis administration represents an existential threat to higher education in the state of Florida,” said J. Andrew Gothard, the statewide president of the United Faculty of Florida and an instructor in the English department at Florida Atlantic University.

DeSantis’s office did not respond to questions about the draft legislation and whether the governor planned to propose the measures again.
State Rep. Fentrice Driskell, the leader of the Florida House Democratic caucus, said the proposals floated by DeSantis would be “a gross misstep” and would damage the state’s reputation and rankings in higher education.


“This would erode the autonomy of our public universities and colleges. It would be so far out of alignment with the entire purpose of people attending college in the first place, to prepare them to be free thinkers and to compete in this dynamic and globalized world,” Driskell said.
Other experts welcomed the suggestions as long-overdue pushback on liberal universities and saw the effort as an indicator of a more urgent need to reform higher education nationally.

“It is not hard to preserve academic freedom while introducing genuine intellectual diversity to campus,” Adam Kissel, a former Education Department official and Heritage Foundation visiting fellow, wrote in an email. “In general this is by adding voices rather than restricting them.”
Kissel, whose focus at Heritage is on higher-education reform, also praised the “individual freedom” act that took effect Friday. “It permits full classroom discussion of any issue, using any material, only so long as the professor does not say officially that for the purposes of the class, a certain position is to be deemed true.”


But Cassanello, who is president of United Faculty of Florida at the University of Central Florida, said faculty members are worried. “People are really concerned about their freedom in the classroom,” he said. “A lot of this legislation is unclear about where the lines are.”
College faculty are fighting back against state bills on critical race theory
DeSantis, who attended Yale and also graduated from Harvard Law School, has been a staunch supporter of technical training and certification programs in Florida, noting the need for people who learn trades or skills in industries such as trucking logistics and medical assistance.

In June, DeSantis lauded work experience over “a magic piece of paper which likely would have cost too much anyway” when he signed a law allowing state agencies to substitute work experience, including military experience, for college degrees in hiring.


“Give me somebody that served eight years in the Navy or the Marine Corps. That education is going to be much more beneficial and pertinent than someone that went $100,000 in debt to get a degree in zombie studies,” DeSantis said.
He has also pledged to keep tuition at public colleges and universities low, and this week, he changed rules for the state’s Bright Future scholarships to allow work experience by high school students to count toward required community service.
Judge rules for professors in University of Florida academic freedom case
Still, his proposals to rein in the independence of those schools have alarmed some academics in Florida and beyond. In other parts of the country, some legislators and governors are pushing for more autonomy over hiring and firing state employees. Tenure is coming under increasing criticism. And a number of states have passed bills to prevent colleges from teaching “divisive concepts.”
College faculty are fighting back against state bills on critical race theory
Florida may be leading the charge, said Fairfield University mathematics professor Irene Mulvey, the president of the American Association of University Professors, adding that Texas is not far behind and that many other states are following suit. “It’s a trend in the larger culture wars … where you see these politicians trying to throw red meat to the base and stir people up.”



University of Tennessee education professor Robert Kelchen said the most startling change in Florida is the recent legislation that will require universities periodically to change accreditors. No other state has done anything remotely similar, he said. Much is at stake; if a college is not properly accredited, its students cannot get federal financial aid.
Some higher-education scholars and faculty critics said lawmakers appeared not to understand the accreditation process, in which institutions undergo lengthy voluntary reviews, and that requiring schools to seek new accreditors would waste time and money.
Accreditation does not typically rise to this sort of public awareness, said Kevin Kinser, a professor of education policy studies at Pennsylvania State University. When it does, he said, it is often because politicians say, “ ‘Wait a minute. Who are these people telling me what I need to do with my colleges and universities?’ ”



But Kissel said the Florida law is common sense. “Just as companies should change financial auditors so that they do not get too cozy with one firm, universities should regularly change accreditors,” he said.
The legislation was passed after the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges raised concerns about academic freedom at the University of Florida. Three professors sued the university after they initially were told they could not testify in a lawsuit challenging a voting-restrictions law that DeSantis had championed. Three additional faculty members who wanted to speak out against other DeSantis policies, such as a ban on mask mandates, later joined the case. A judge ruled in favor of the professors this year.


Looks like this pisses off the Therapy Cat crowd. Didn't read any of it but I'm all for it! LOL!
 
Sure, what's to get rattled about - just a governor in the deep south deciding "what schools, including universities, and workplaces can teach about race and identity." Where's the harm in that?
Exactly. Only certified, dyed-in-the-wool DEI experts are qualified to decide what's to be taught about race and identity.

Or maybe evangelicals of all stripes should just piss off.
 
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