The Resolution of the University of Florida Situation

The university relents but policy reform is needed to better protect academic freedom

As previously discussed, the University of Florida created a huge controversy by attempting to bar its professors from testifying as expert witnesses in a lawsuit against the state of Florida. The Academic Freedom Alliance was among the groups the rebuked the university for this violation of academic freedom.

The university has now fully backed down.  The AFA released the statement below.

The Academic Freedom Alliance applauds the University of Florida for heeding our calls to reverse course and support the freedom of its faculty to testify in court without restriction. This reversal represents a victory in the fight for academic freedom and shows the importance of organizing a national response to speech threats whenever and wherever they emerge. The university was right to appoint a Task Force to review the conflict of interest policy that led to the initial decision, and we wish the university well as it undertakes this process. We welcome the university to contact us if we can be of assistance in shaping its policies on academic freedom going forward.

It remains to be seen whether the university does a good job of modifying its policies to better protect academic freedom moving forward or whether it will implement those policies in a manner that is consistent with the proper mission of a university, but this is a good first step. I hope the university makes a sincere effort to prevent a repeat of this mistake.

Comments

[Jimmy the Dane]

In a another resolution to a case in our ongoing "culture wars" the skirt wearing boy where Loudon County schools covered up his sexual assaults was just convicted of groping another student. The woke school board and its rape enablers have a lot of questions to answer down there.

[Ed Grinberg]

Questioning your school board now officially makes you a domestic terrorist. Haven't you heard?

[Jimmy the Dane]

But standing in front of one claiming you have 1,000 soldiers ready to go to support CRT is A OK!

[Bill Poser]

That the university has backed down is good news, but I am disturbed that there appear to have been no consequences for the administrators responsible for such a blatant and egregious violation of academic freedom. Heads should roll.

[Michael W. Towns]

Do you really think there will be consequences?

[Bill Poser]

Unfortunately, no.

[Jimmy the Dane]

Administrators never see any consequences. Even when they are held accountable all they do is "run silent" for a few months and then pop up at another institution across the country (usually in some non-descript diversity capacity) to continue plying their wares as usual.

[Bob from Ohio]

Why should they face consequences here? They did the right thing but got mau maued out of the correct position.

[GKHoffman]

I agree. No private employer would permit an employee to testify essentially as an expert witness in a court proceeding to the detriment of the employer as a defendant. There should be no difference in public employment.

[Don Nico]

Ah but the testimony would have been against the State of Florida not the University which is an entity of the state and the employer. Does that make a difference?

[Michael Masinter]

Given the increasingly politicized government of Florida's university system, were I a UF professor I would be concerned about the continued prohibition against the use of university resources. If that merely means I can't have university staff type and bind my work, that's fine, but it could also be read to prohibit the use of the university computer network, its libraries and databases, and telephones in conducting associated research. Presumably that is one of the reasons the three profs have sued.

[Bob from Ohio]

"prohibit the use of the university computer network, ... and databases, and telephones"

Oh noes, only the same prohibition everyone else outside colleges have to abide with. How will the pampered profs cope?

[Bill Poser]

One of the roles of university faculty is providing expertise outside the university. That is part of their community service, which in most universities is explicitly mentioned in contracts and other documents describing faculty duties. That includes advice that may not accord with the views of the state government.

[Krayt]

Barring off-job phone calls as a perk is no longer a financial benefit as everything is unlimited nowadays. Some of these rules should be undone.

[gormadoc]

That's not true at all. I think you must have never worked a labor job, done menial service, or babysat when you were young. As just one example, tons of people use company computers for outside work or other use and it's often permitted by the company. Software companies carve out their niche through where they stand on the issue and most are fairly permissive. And for a university, where employees often have to buy their own tools anyway, it's stupid to think they should be able to restrict the use of those tools.

[Bob from Ohio]

"everyone else" was too broad but most companies still place limits on personal use of resources. Sometimes its tolerated for lack of policing resources until its time for layoffs/firing.

[Cal Cetín]

I sounds like a university censored some professors to appease right-wingers.

Ah, it triggers nostalgia for the old days, doesn't it? Isn't this the paradigmatic academic-freedom dispute - a university practicing censorship in response to outside reactionary pressure?

Clear-cut good guys and bad guys, not like this woke stuff where well-intentioned people may have gone a tad too far in opposing racism and bigotry. /sarc

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

Is it your god that makes you sympathize and align with racists, xenophobes, gay-bashers, and misogynists to such a degree as is readily observed?

[Cal Cetín]

Do you have a link?

[Cal Cetín]

I'd attach a "Citation Needed" to your comment, but then I'd have to do that with pretty much all your comments.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

You can't remember reflexively taking the conservative-Republican-clinger sides of debates?

[Cal Cetín]

I remember saying the Supreme Court had full authority to judge the SB8 dispute on its merits, pre-enforcement.

I remember siding with the liberal professors in some academic-freedom dispute with right-wingers. As for a link...wait, it's in this very thread.

But you specifically said I *sympathize* with racists, etc., etc. No citation at all to support your, shall I say, terminological inexactitude (as Churchill might call it).

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

" I hope the university makes a sincere effort to prevent a repeat of this mistake. "

Wouldn't the natural first step be to stop taking calls (direct or indirect) from Gov. Ron DeSantis and his political playmates?