https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/10/30/university-florida-professors-barred-testifying-voting-rights-lawsuit/6212864001/
Anyone heard of a similar circumstance?
Here's the NY Times article:
Quote
After being hired as expert witnesses for groups opposing a restrictive voting law, three University of Florida academics were told they could not participate in the lawsuit against the state.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/29/us/florida-professors-voting-rights-lawsuit.html
I might go beyond "wacky" to "scary"....
M.
There is also a WaPo story. I just picked USA because it wasn't paywalled.
If this rule was in place in Indiana a century or so ago Pi would be 3 in Indiana.
It is perfectly legal for a firm to regulate the outside economic activity of its employees, and to regulate it in the firm's interests. Now, the University of Florida is a public institution, so that the university cannot regulate the speech of its students or employees. I'm guessing that if the three were not paid for being outside experts the university could not stop them. This will likely play out in the courts.
I don't like such prohibitions, so I don't live in Florida.
Quote
After being hired as expert witnesses for groups opposing a restrictive voting law, three University of Florida academics were told they could not participate in the lawsuit against the state.
Yeah, I guess it's a restrictive voting law, but OTOH, every time a fraudulent vote is counted a legal vote is canceled.
ETA:
QuoteAnyone heard of a similar circumstance?
Yes, somewhat similar. Some years ago I could have been interviewed by a local newspaper about something in which I had a first hand information that contradicted a public statement made by the State University's representative. But I told the reporter 'no thank you' because I expected I would lose my employment if I did. So state universities, and I would expect, other state agencies, already inhibit speech of their paid employees, and doing so protects their status quo. The only reason we're finding out about this thing in Florida is the three of them have tenure. And, I expect, the reason they will win in court. But that win will not represent what people will think it does. Freedom to tell the truth is limited by your willingness to endure the retaliation. And when you're not wealthy there can be a lot to endure. by contrast, I predict these three will prevail and the experience will count favorably toward their reputations. This is how tenured academics see themselves as striking a blow for free speech while they're actually just availing themselves of their privilege, while usually stumping for left-leaning positions that are overrepresented in their fields.
Big Urban College once has a college president that told all faculty that anyone who was invited to talk to the press for whatever reason had to be personally cleared by her first.
She also said that all faculty were disposable and should only have a box's worth of items in their office.
The characterization by Joe Biden, Stacey Abrams et al of GA as 'modern-day Jim Crow' is not agreed with by most Americans, including a surprising number of BIPOCS.
Are you on the wrong thread?
M.
If you have the same answer to everything then it doesn't matter what thread it is.
There's only one correct answer here. It might as well be a math problem.
'What an outrage!'
My employer has a similar policy. We need permission to work for any party suing the state... We are prohibited from serving as an expert witness against any state issue. My state has some oil interests, and this rule came to be after a professor (or a few) provided expert witness testimony that was used against the state that ultimately reduced the states' share of the money in oil revenues.
I suppose that the powers that be dont want to pay for the experts in their employ to use their status as college professors (experts) against them!
Related, we have to get permission from (or at least notify) our employer before we contact any elected official! As I understand it, I am not permitted to contact my state senator without first running it through the university first.
Quote from: clean on October 30, 2021, 06:13:48 PM
My employer has a similar policy. We need permission to work for any party suing the state... We are prohibited from serving as an expert witness against any state issue. My state has some oil interests, and this rule came to be after a professor (or a few) provided expert witness testimony that was used against the state that ultimately reduced the states' share of the money in oil revenues.
I suppose that the powers that be dont want to pay for the experts in their employ to use their status as college professors (experts) against them!
Related, we have to get permission from (or at least notify) our employer before we contact any elected official! As I understand it, I am not permitted to contact my state senator without first running it through the university first.
Does your university actually have that as a written contractual policy, or is it just something that people say? For my institution, it was most definitely the latter. Our former president made something up, but there was no actual policy, and indeed, such a "policy" probably would probably not pass muster under our mission statement.
All outside employment must be approved. Generally, it is not much of an issue, but or expert testimony against the state, it is certainly not approved.
Well, now that I have looked for it, I find that it WAS the law of the state, but that it was challenged. So I am not sure if the state or the consulting faculty actually won.
Quote from: Ruralguy on October 30, 2021, 04:16:50 PM
If you have the same answer to everything then it doesn't matter what thread it is.
True.
But Florida is different from Georgia, and not only because (as this week's New Yorker crossword clue reminded us) only one of them is a peninsula.
M.
'Voter suppression laws' is another of several issues that democrats don't yet realize will be a loser for them with swing voters. Doesn't matter a great deal what state you're in.
Quote from: clean on October 30, 2021, 08:16:06 PM
All outside employment must be approved. Generally, it is not much of an issue, but or expert testimony against the state, it is certainly not approved.
Oh. The "outside employment" thing. Yeah, that is fairly typical policy, to regulate
moonlighting.
It is neither designed nor intended to restrict college employees from free speech activities.
so what happens if Prof. X is subpoenaed to testify in a case?
Quote from: kaysixteen on October 31, 2021, 02:29:21 PM
so what happens if Prof. X is subpoenaed to testify in a case?
I'm guessing Prof. X might relate to Lear´s Fool, who Lear would've had whipp'd for lying, Lear's daughters for telling the truth, and was sometimes whipp'd for holding his peace.
One of the prof's has apparently testified against the state in a similar case some time ago, and was paid to doo so. U of FL was aware, and approved it at that time.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/11/01/university-of-florida-desantis-voting-law/
The regional accreditor for UF has now stepped in.
Accreditor: Did University of Florida violate academic freedom standards by blocking professors' testimony?
https://www.gainesville.com/story/news/local/2021/11/01/accreditor-asks-if-ufs-denial-professors-violates-academic-freedom/6237432001/
This is the smartest take I've seen on the matter:
https://www.chronicle.com/article/totalitarianism-takes-aim-at-higher-education
The former chancellor of UNC, Holden Thorp, who faced similar political pressure, also weighs in with a direct focus on the UF president.
https://www.chronicle.com/article/stand-up-for-what-you-believe-president-fuchs
"Is it the obligation of faculty members to support all of the political goals of the university and the State of Florida? Are they obligated, for instance, to support the governor's anti-science stance on masks, vaccines, and the safety of cruise ships? Maybe that's how Fuchs and Glover see it." - Holden Thorp
So I imagine Dr. Thorp must've freaked out seeing all those maskless people congregating the height of the pandemic for the BLM/Geo Floyd riots, er, peaceful protests, but I'm not finding it through google as yet.
Update: https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/05/us/florida-professors-can-testify/index.html
Another update: UF president Fuchs announced that he'll be stepping down. CHE has a nice story on the background (https://www.chronicle.com/article/floridas-president-resisted-conflict-and-became-an-emblem-of-college-leadership-in-polarized-times). Most interesting to me are the interpretations by UF faculty.
QuoteUnderpinning ... faculty anecdotes is a sense that the university has struck a bargain: Don't draw unnecessary attention, and the money will keep coming from the state. Danaya C. Wright, a co-author of the ad hoc committee's report on academic freedom, says that's not an acceptable deal.
But what is the alternative? In a hyperpartisan environment, many professors argue that Fuchs has done about as well as one could expect. He may not light himself on fire at the specter of political interference, but he may also have a realistic view of what is politically possible in the state.
QuoteIf Fuchs had played his presidency differently — if he'd poked his finger in the governor's eye, for example — he wouldn't have lasted long, and there is a good chance he would already have been replaced by a politician, said Pradeep Kumar, a former Senate chairman and professor emeritus of physics.
Had he spoken earlier, had he questioned, he would have been fired and immediately replaced by somebody of a very mediocre reputation," Kumar said. "In some sense, by keeping things quiet, he kept things under control. Of course, one reaches the limits of one's tolerance, and Kent Fuchs has reached the limits of his tolerance. The only reason I can think of why he's doing what he's doing right now is that he has reached the limit of his tolerance."
How will the search for the next president go? Will only mediocre politicians be in the running? In general, it sounds as if pubic universities in the region will have trouble attracting and retaining qualified senior administrators.
University of South Florida and University of North Florida are now also looking for chief executives:
https://www.tampabay.com/news/education/2022/01/06/uf-joins-two-other-state-universities-looking-for-new-presidents/
Are Florida universities getting that hard to run, or is this just an unfortunate coincidence? Of course it has been an awfully bad couple of years for higher education leaders all over the country.
The presidents of both USF and UNF had terms of only 3 years before departing for greener pastures.
Apparently not only academic craziness happens in Florida:
https://youtu.be/h7gL4c9d8ic
As more of my family moves in that direction, I'm starting to wonder if it's a diagnostic indicator....
M.