Former Sen. Ben Sasse Takes Office as UF President and now announces he is retiring

They are dudes who are mentally ill.

 

Well of course they are.

 

So I still don’t know how the Hamilton center will play out, but man it looks like an impressive set of faculty hires, so whatever they’re selling is working.

Hamilton Center welcomes 21 new faculty members

 

Hopefully, this will make them feel confident enough in their standing that they won't demand UF leadership muzzle professors in other departments and pressure those professors into signing loyalty oaths.

 

Really long but interesting.
Agree or disagree with him, he is genuinely a smart smart guy.

 

Will be interesting to watch. Any organization that has to try and sell the notion of "promoting free thinking" repeatedly in their propaganda pitch has historically done nothing of the sort.

 

That is an interesting take. He sounds like every arrogant tool from McKenzie that I have ever had the misfortune of dealing with. Like most at McKenzie, he uses a lot of jargon and buzz phrases that are intended to impress, while not giving away the fact that he has no actual intellectual expertise.

Perfect empty-headed political hack.

 

I’m not a big buzz word fan either, but he frames arguments well, and is clearly very well read. If you watch the whole thing he can speak intelligently on a wide variety of subjects and provides a well reasoned POV, even if you disagree with him.
But to each their own.

 

Not a comment on Sasse, but Robert George is a horse's ass. Sorry. LOL.

 

I don’t think anyone has ever argued that Ben sasse isn’t smart or well read.

 

I'll add further that I would pay real money to be able to communicate as articulately and clearly as he can.
I have my complaints about his leadership and strategic vision, but damn the man can communicate. i just wish he would communicate MORE.

 

Bumping this up to point out that UF pulled exactly the sort of viewpoint discriminatory bullshit I figured they would with the pro-Palestinian protesters:
University of Florida dean unilaterally kicks out pro-Palestinian protester for three years, withholds her degree
Keely Gliwa was set to graduate with a master’s degree in biochemistry and molecular biology in May. On April 29, Keely attended a peaceful pro-Palestinian protest at the campus’s Plaza of the Americas, where some students were sitting in lawn chairs playing Uno.

UF police broke up the protest to arrest the students sitting in lawn chairs. In video of the incident, Keely can be seen consoling a student who had a panic attack when the police arrived, urging the student to leave with her after the police ordered everyone to disperse. As a result, Keely was arrested for failing to immediately comply with the dispersal order.
* * *
After reviewing video evidence and witness statements corroborating Keely’s account, the University Officials Board overseeing her conduct hearing concluded Keely did not willfully ignore the dispersal order. The Board recommended two years of probation based on Keely’s spotless record and the outpouring of letters attesting to her good character.

Shockingly, however, Dean of Students Chris Summerlin unilaterally overturned the board’s recommendation, finding Keely responsible on all four charges and suspending her for three years. “A three-year suspension is an expulsion in all but name,” said FIRE attorney Jessie Appleby. “It’s a shockingly disproportionate punishment to mete out to a student with no disciplinary history, on the whim of a single dean.”
@slayerxing

 

it’s pretty shitty I mean there isn’t much else to say. A decision like this is very damaging for the student. I’m sure many will say “f around and find out” but the punishment doesn’t really fit the crime here. Uf went after a former student president of the gau a couple years ago for a trumped up charge and it took her like a year or two to essentially win her case. Uf is also the school of don’t tase me bro so don’t exactly have a spotless record about protestors even before sasse. All that said this is clearly politically motivated and it’s sad how it’s ending up for all involved imo.

 

It’s hard to know what causes any N of 1, but this seems horrible. Hopefully it can be remedied.

 

This new Dean of students has an online PhD from Capella University and came from The University of the Incarnate Word. His Master's is from American InterContinental University. (You may wish to look it up for a history of fraud and inadequate education.)
His response should not be unexpected.

 

the Dean of students office has been a revolving door of incompetence and meanness for nearly my entire time at Uf.

 

UF never said students could not peacefully protest but did establish specific rules for protesters to follow. At the same time, the punishments for those who chose not to follow those rules were made very clear also.

This student chose to break those rules and is now paying the price. Not sure what the issue is here?

 

Sounds like this person did follow the rules, and their mistake was to attempt to console someone. Perhaps they didn’t leave quickly enough for the police’s liking, but based on those facts they weren’t exactly defiant either.

Secondary is this “Dean” does not have a UF resume. Pretty hard to claim “meritocracy” hiring political hacks with phony degrees.

Seems a bit wrong for a hack with no qualifications to have such unilateral authority to override the board’s recommendation. But even if the guy had a more legit resume, nobody should have such unilateral power to engage personal or political vendettas on campus.

 

When you are the government and punish a certain group of people more harshly than others because of the views they're espousing, you are violating the Constitution. Feel free to read the FIRE link I posted. They're not a liberal group.