https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-ha...t=mtfdch5q6ssdp9o&reflink=article_email_share I was glad to see President Sasse's strong statement on antisemitism after the attacks on Israel. Another quote from the article: The University of Florida may be ideally positioned to become the Harvard of the Unwoke. It is the flagship public institution in a state whose governor and Legislature have declared war on identity politics. There are no racial preferences in admissions, thanks to a 1999 executive order by the underappreciated then-Gov. Jeb Bush. Mr. Sasse himself is a conservative Republican with a scholarly background. He holds a doctorate in history from Yale, and before entering the Senate he taught at the University of Texas and served as president of Midland University in Fremont, Neb.
Low quality bait. I love UF but it ain’t no Harvard. I also went to UMich and I’d argue it isn’t quite that either. Conservatives trying really hard to associate themselves with some kind excellence. UF isn’t a conservative haven. Keep trying.
The three university heads "equivocated" because they were drawing the line between targeted harassment and free speech. Let me be clear, if Ben Sasse seeks to punish students merely for advocating for the genocide of Jews (assuming they are in one of the many public forums on Florida's campus), he will get sued for violating their First Amendment rights. So Sasse can pander all he wants for political points, but that doesn't trump the Constitution. And looking beyond the quote you gave, Oklahoma, Sasse actually engaged in the same "equivocation" as the other three university heads when pressed on the issue: Yet when I follow up by raising the issue of free speech, he acknowledges the answer isn’t so simple. Regarding the First Amendment, he says, “I’m a pretty libertarian zealot.” He emphasizes that the Constitution “draws a deep, deep line at speech and action,” that “threats are the front edge of action,” and that “orchestrated plans, or getting to a definable way of targeting specific people, is when speech ceases to be deliberation.” Which isn’t that different from Ms. Gay’s testimony last month: “We are deeply committed to free expression. But when speech crosses over into conduct that violates our policies—policies against bullying, harassment, intimidation—we do take action.” ------------------------------------ I have a lot to criticize. It starts with the same point I made last time. Sasse says a whole lot about the lack of tolerance at the elite private universities and jack shit about the war on free speech and academic freedom being waged by the DeSantis and his cronies in Tallahassee. All it does is make his words appear hollow. We're facing greater censorship and intolerance for dissenting ideas in Florida than they are at Harvard, yet Sasse doesn't have the courage to speak on that because it might adversely affect him. That says it all. Indeed, the Wall Street Journal (unsurprisingly) tries to paint the censorship as a positive: The University of Florida may be ideally positioned to become the Harvard of the Unwoke. It is the flagship public institution in a state whose governor and Legislature have declared war on identity politics. There are no racial preferences in admissions, thanks to a 1999 executive order by the underappreciated then-Gov. Jeb Bush. Mr. Sasse himself is a conservative Republican with a scholarly background. He holds a doctorate in history from Yale, and before entering the Senate he taught at the University of Texas and served as president of Midland University in Fremont, Neb. ---------------------------------------- Sasse did say things I agree strongly with, like these couple paragraphs (that higher education is about preparing people to be productive and informed citizens, not just a jobs training program): He sees the crisis in higher ed as having arisen in part from an overemphasis on training for employment. In the mid-20th century, as he tells it, “we were going through the late stages of the Industrial Revolution and the very, very early stages of the rise of knowledge-economy jobs.” With the need for farm labor rapidly dwindling and factories becoming more efficient, “you have a whole bunch of people who are just not going to be able to have brawn jobs for their whole life.” Anticipating that World War II veterans would need training, Congress enacted the GI Bill in 1944. “So you grow higher ed as a sector with an assumption that this is going to be practical first.” But the idea that the purpose of education was, as Mr. Sasse puts it, “to prepare for life and thoughtful citizenship and engagement and caring about the good, the true and the beautiful” also held a good deal of sway. “I think people kind of intuitively understood in the late ’40s and early ’50s that you needed more of both.” --------------------------------------------------- The final criticism I have is for his misplaced words on equity: What’s wrong with DEI “is the E,” he says, meaning the embrace of “equity” at the expense of equality. “The fundamental problem is saying that Martin Luther King can’t fit in the new communities of know-it-all ideological-indoctrination bureaucrats that run most universities in the country. . . . MLK doesn’t fit because of his aspirations for a colorblind society. “Can people have a different view than MLK? Of course.” But “the ideological conformity of mandating that equality of opportunity is wrong and bigoted, it has to be excluded from our discourse—those people are crazy.” ------------------------------------------------ 1. For the vast majority of folks, the entire point of "equity" is "equality of opportunity." You don't get "equality of opportunity" by treating all people equally. That's why they use the word of equity. If one of my classmates is blind, he might need accommodations to have the same opportunities I do, as a sighted person, to succeed. Treating us equally would mean denying those accommodations. Equity would ensure he gets them in order to even the playing field. 2. Sasse's view of MLK is ignorant and uninformed. Republicans love to pick out one tiny part of one speech and ignore everything else MLK said. MLK fully supported affirmative action (i.e., race-conscious measures) to remedy the harm done by racism. MLK's support for "colorblindness" was an aspiration for when we had a just and equal society. We still do not. Indeed, MLK spent his final days calling America "a racist country" and telling white people that they needed to reckon with their sins if we were ever to become a more equal society. That reckoning hasn't happened. If MLK doesn't fit anywhere, it's in right-wing politics. That's why they try to portray a whitewashed version of him.
And I'll make one final point, if the people of this state want UF to be the Harvard of anything (as a UF alum, I'd love to see our university be considered among the best of the best), they need to stop putting people in Tallahassee who are attacking tenure, academic freedom, free speech, labor rights, and universities' ability to govern themselves. The more they do that, the more they're going to drive away top scholars and students. Elite scholars don't want to operate in a system of fear and paranoia where they have diminished rights and freedoms. Nobody wants to be looking over their shoulder every time they introduce a controversial idea. And elite students don't want to pursue an education that is seen as less than because the government is dictating what ideas they are and aren't allowed to learn and discuss.
So UF isn’t synonymous with academic excellence and isn’t a conservative haven ? Thanks for clearing that up for us.
Not sure when you went to school... but UF sure ain't the UF I went too anymore. But yes, not Harvard.
I mean, politics aside in order to be Harvard-like you gotta bring in some elite researchers. Think top 10 players, five stars in football recruiting. So far we’re not really doing that. But one thing for sure the state is giving UF a ton of money so that will help. but the attacks on tenure will not help at all. And believe me internally we all know the attacks are coming…
[ We don’t. But conservatives seem really keen on finding a good university they can hold up as espousing their values. Sasse being a conservative the public knows, combined with a few of his statements makes him the guy right now. It doesn’t necessarily reflect readily in Gainesville though. Honestly as I’ve thought about it some though since the Oct 7, carving out that niche, even if it isn’t really true, could be a boon for the school. Imagine being a go to school for half the country nationally. Plus we’ve further firmed our place up with the Jewish community nationally (that was already solid in FL and some of the NE). So let these stories run.
The (much less than) half of the country that dislikes higher education and is disproportionately not pursuing it?
UF is the farthest thing from Conservative when it comes to leadership. I know some are up in arms about Sasse. But UF has been way left for some time. Now the student population is most more 50/50 or at least it was when I attended in the late 90s through 2006… But UF as a whole has moved way left from when I attended. I have multiple friends that have now done tours and I can tell you that I would have raised my hand and thanked the kids giving the tour but said I got this and will figure out the new buildings. Just crazy they have the students announce “pronouns” on a tour! It was painful taking our kids to a UF/fsu soccer scrimmage a few years ago as our middle players soccer. At halftime a 5 minute left wing video segment. I honestly want my kids to go Ivy for the connections knowing they are grounded enough to handle it. Sure UF would be great. But it is striving to be as left as the Ivy’s (we will see with Sasse)!
True, 48 percent of Dems have college degrees, 31 percent of republicans. More evidence of what’s happening to the Republican Party, a different discussion though. Point was, 31 percent of a nationwide pool is a massive number if you have it largely to yourself.
It’s a delicate balance. To the extent UF can be branded as a “normal” school, less caught up in identity politics, that could be a plus. If it is viewed as a school for conservatives and beholden to hacks like DeSantis, that is likely to deteriorate its image.
You don't, though. When push comes to shove, the Ivies are still going to win out, "woke" or not. It's all about signaling; the upper middle class and wealthy won't want their kids missing out. Regardless, it's better for UF if we're seen as a serious university, rather than branding ourselves as "anti-woke." I am all for them branding themselves as a neutral arbiter that's all about free speech and academic freedom, though. But that means an actual commitment to those principles.
What's so dumb about this stuff is it doesn't really help if Sasse can't build a functioning administration that has some kind of strategic vision. At this point, his strategic vision is to rely on other people to come up with strategies and then he throws money at it. Getting drawn into these political wars is ultimately not good for the institution. He should be focusing on bringing in money, bringing in talent, and creating a vision for the future. At this point, other than the state throwing money at us like candy which may have happened with or without him, he hasn't really done any of those 3.
Seems like his strategic vision to play to WSJ editorial page and that movement. The students, faculty, alumni, research personnel, none of those are stakeholders he cares about
