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  • 2021-06-23 (xsd:date)
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  • Florida 'Viewpoint Diversity' Law Doesn't Require University Staff, Students To Register Political Views (en)
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  • Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in June 2021 signed legislation that would require universities to survey students, faculty, and staff about intellectual freedom and viewpoint diversity on their respective campuses. More than a year later, in July 2022, various social media users posted misleading comments alleging that the law would require staff and students on those campuses to register their political views with the state. For example, former U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Democrat from Missouri and media commentator, tweeted about the law on July 6, 2022, Is this America? Really? What kind of autocratic, freedom squashing, Government overreach is this? Famed horror fiction writer Stephen King also tweeted, DeSantis signs bill requiring Florida students, professors to register political views with state. I. Can't. Even. The rumor appeared to stem from a headline on a story published by the liberal website Salon in June 2021. The story's headline originally said, DeSantis signs bill requiring Florida students, professors to register political views with state. Salon updated the headline on the story more than a year later, in July 2022, and it now reads, DeSantis signs bill requiring survey of Florida students, professors on their political views. But the update came after the misleading rumors went viral online. Here is the exact text in the key part of the legislation: The text of the legislation doesn't explicitly specify whether or not survey participation from faculty and students would be voluntary and anonymous. But it also isn't about registering people's political views, and makes no mention of any such thing. Cassie Palelis, spokesperson for the Florida Department of Education, told Snopes in an email that the survey is, in fact, anonymous and voluntary: Palelis added, This survey is designed to help us better understand the extent of bias on Florida campuses, and asks respondents whether they fear reprisal on their college campus for expressing their political ideology. We asked the Florida Department of Education for a sample of a survey but didn't receive one in time for publication. We will update this story when and if we do. (The Tallahassee Democrat newspaper published a survey from the Florida Board of Governors sent to university employees, which states the survey is voluntary and anonymous.) The law has been controversial from the get-go, in no small part because DeSantis suggested the surveys could be used as leverage to cut funding for academic institutions. We obviously want our universities to be focused on critical thinking, academic rigor, DeSantis said, as quoted by Florida Politics. We do not want them as basically hotbeds for stale ideology. That’s not worth tax dollars and it’s not something that we will be supporting. InsideHigherEd, an outlet that focuses on news and issues on college and university campuses, reported that the Republican-backed law was rolled out in the context of inflammatory comments by DeSantis about indoctrination. The law raised fears that the surveys could be used as weapons to target certain academic departments and programs for funding cuts, per InsideHigherEd, and that although the surveys are anonymous, they ask for demographic information that could be used to identify people, particularly at smaller institutions. Opponents unsuccessfully sought a court injunction against the surveys, which were rolled out in April 2022. (en)
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