{"id":57340,"date":"2023-02-25T00:12:15","date_gmt":"2023-02-25T05:12:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=57340"},"modified":"2023-02-25T00:12:24","modified_gmt":"2023-02-25T05:12:24","slug":"florida-bill-would-give-desantis-more-power-over-state-universities-and-ban-gender-studies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2023\/02\/florida-bill-would-give-desantis-more-power-over-state-universities-and-ban-gender-studies\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida bill would give DeSantis more power over state universities and ban gender studies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A new bill overhauling Florida universities to match Gov. Ron DeSantis<\/a>\u2019 vision for higher education would shift power at state schools into the hands of the Republican leader\u2019s political appointees and ban gender studies as a field of study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The legislation, filed this week, would also require that general education courses at state colleges and universities \u201cpromote the values necessary to preserve the constitutional republic\u201d and cannot define American history \u201cas contrary to the creation of a new nation based on universal principles stated in the Declaration of Independence.\u201d It would prohibit general courses \u201cwith a curriculum based on unproven, theoretical or exploratory content.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bill makes good on DeSantis\u2019 pledge<\/a> to ban colleges and universities from any expenditures on diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, programs. In a news conference earlier this month, DeSantis, who is weighing a 2024 presidential bid, said such programs create an \u201cideological filter,\u201d and his office described them as \u201cdiscriminatory.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DEI programs are intended to promote multiculturalism and to encourage students of all races and backgrounds to feel comfortable in a campus setting, especially those from traditionally underrepresented communities. The state\u2019s flagship school, the University of Florida, has a \u201cchief diversity officer,\u201d a \u201cCenter for Inclusion and Multicultural Engagement\u201d and an \u201cOffice for Accessibility and Gender Equity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bill would put all hiring decisions in the hands of each universities\u2019 board of trustees, a body selected entirely by the governor and his appointees, with input from the school\u2019s president. A board of trustee member could also call for the review of any faculty member\u2019s tenure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DeSantis has seen his standing among conservatives soar nationwide following his public stances on hot-button cultural and education issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Republican governor has also installed a controversial new board<\/a> at the New College of Florida, a public liberal arts college, with a mandate to remake the school into his conservative vision for higher education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Presidents of Florida\u2019s two-year community colleges last month committed to not teach critical race theory in a vacuum and to \u201cnot fund or support any institutional practice, policy, or academic requirement that compels belief in critical race theory or related concepts such as intersectionality, or the idea that systems of oppression should be the primary lens through which teaching and learning are analyzed and\/or improved upon.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The state\u2019s education department characterized the move<\/a> as a rejection of \u201c\u2018woke\u2019 diversity, equity and inclusion [and] critical race theory ideologies.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new bill overhauling Florida universities to match Gov. Ron DeSantis\u2019 vision for higher education would shift power at state schools into the hands of the Republican leader\u2019s political appointees and… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":56336,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[128],"tags":[2184],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57340"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57340"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57340\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57342,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57340\/revisions\/57342"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}