intellectual freedom

The search for the next president of Florida Atlantic University hasn't officially begun yet. But Gov. Ron DeSantis' office has already floated the name of a Republican state lawmaker as a "good candidate" for the job. That has some professors concerned about the integrity of the search process.

The state is asking a federal judge to shield former Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran from testifying in a battle about a 2021 law requiring surveys of “intellectual freedom and viewpoint diversity” on college and university campuses.

A day after the state began surveys to measure “intellectual freedom and viewpoint diversity” on college and university campuses, a federal judge Tuesday refused to dismiss a constitutional challenge to a 2021 law that spurred the surveys.

The university's report follows an outcry about the school blocking professors from testifying in a challenge to a controversial elections law.

Saying plaintiffs have offered a “parade of horribles,” attorneys for the state want a federal judge to toss out a challenge to a new law that requires conducting surveys on Florida college and university campuses about “intellectual freedom and viewpoint diversity.”

Legislation that would survey university students on whether competing ideas and perspectives are presented and welcomed on campus passed its first committee stop today. Sen. Ray Rodrigues (R-Fort Myers) says the bill is needed to ensure students are hearing competing viewpoints.