I'm reminded of what the late Clark Kerr, president of the University of California system, once said: "The purpose of a university is to make students safe for ideas -- not ideas safe for students." I'm a graduate of UC Berkeley.
I am 99% abhorred by all that DeSantis represents and all that he is doing to higher education in the state of Florida. However, as a long-time professor interested in strengthening my own faculty at a private university, I am 1% embracing DeSantis' stance, hoping that will result in our ability to pick up superior faculty from Florida schools who don't want to live like that.
i am ever more grateful that i was able to go to a top-notch university in the '60s, where learning was the objective rather than something to be ridiculed and suffocated. and more and more i am becoming convinced that desantis is not just dangerous but seriously evil.
Frederick Douglass once said: “Find out just what the people will submit to and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue until they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.”
State universities rely on attracting out of state students who pay much higher tuition than those from in state. It will be interesting to see what happens over the next couple of admissions cycles to the number of applications to Florida schools from out of state students. It would also be interesting to see how many fewer women (in and out of state) decide not to apply to Florida colleges because of the state's draconian abortion law. For a supposedly "smart" guy DeSantis is extraordinarily myopic; apparently he's never heard of the law of unintended consequences.
Sadly DeSatan knows this is what he needs to do to have any hope of being the Republican nominee. He knows what the GOP wants. Heaven help us if this is America’s future.
My FL coworker loves her governor, but then she loves the last president. A subject we purposely avoid, as I am afraid what I would say about that ludicracy. I am old enough to remember Kent State University as if it were yesterday. Universities should be safe for all.
The comparison between what Desantis is doing and what happened so long ago during Kristalnacht in Germany. A dictator fears knowledge; he rules by oppression, not only physical, but intellectual. The purpose of education is to help students open their minds and develop their own ideas. But we can prevent this from spreading. The republicans are creating a scenario in which democrats are fostering anti-American ideas on children in schools. If we follow their rhetoric it becomes obvious that the only way to preserve our society is to follow Desantis' repressive plans. He declaims the Woke society for wanting to force its ideas and programs on us. Democrats don't want to defund the police, nor do they want to have totally open borders, or permit abortion at will up to and after the birth of a baby. Yet when this is repeated over and over, and spread through the right wing media, it is little wonder that so many people accept it. The only way to overcome the problem is to work diligently to tell the truth. Youngkin won in Virginia by repeating the same untruths over and over. The better candidate didn't go after him when he should have, and he lost the election as a result. If Desantis or Trump wins it will be for lack of preparation. We know how they will campaign. There is more than enough time in which to mount an effective offensive against it. When our children aren't permitted to develop their talents to the fullest, what could be more important???
I just head an Oregon Public Radio story about the results of yesterday's election, concentrating on school board races. While one county (CORRECTED: Crook) voted in an all-right-wing-nut-job slate, in many other places the book-banners and LGBTQ-harasser slates LOST.
Everyone on the left-of-center can run on opposing intolerance. Show the crazies -- local, state, and national -- for who they are. Capitalize on their extremism.
People reading this can start now. Look up groups who are fighting the good fight, either in the courtroom (ACLU, Democracy Docket) or in electoral politics (Indivisible, When We All Vote, Progressive Turnout Project, Black Voters Matter, Fair Fight Action, voters of tomorrow), and either donate or volunteer.
Promoting turnout on election day, promoting name recognition of down-ballot race candidates, volunteering for local party offices . . . all these help get people elected. When the right people are in office, the crazies can be kept at bay.
I agree with your comments. I also believe that it is the outright intent of the Republican party to completely undermine higher education (especially public education). This ultimately leads to an under-educated populace, under-powered centers of science, creativity, etc., and a societal structure that is easier to manipulate and control. I grew up in a very right-wing involved Republican family 50+ years ago and this was their dogma. They hated higher education. So while I am not totally surprised, I'm still horrified to see it now.
I am grateful for my education within the UC system (UC Davis). Heaven help us if/when these systems become political fodder for autocrats and disappear.
In the state of Michigan there exists a school in the MIAA entitled Hillsdale College. This farm belt educational facility is proud of the way it turns out good little Republicans who think alike right down to the copies of the constitution they hand out like fliers to a sporting event. Not that there is anything wrong with our constitution. They provide Washington with a ample supply of loyal pages to do the electrites biding. The school should be turning out progressive thinkers instead they pride themselves in turn out little Trumps, by the hundreds. That school isn't doing anyone any favors including our country.
Here in TexAss, our Gov and Lt Gov are trying to move each other farther to the right in the culture wars. Their latest brain fart is to abolish tenure in state colleges and universities. Positively brilliant, don't you think?
I do not understand how people are just nodding their heads and letting them do this! I get that they are trying to silence people, but referring to slaves as "forced servants" and the Japanese forced into camps as "relocated" is sickening. Then there's the whole don't tell about the holocaust. I REALLY don't get that. Where is the federal dept of education? How can Florida and other states be allowed to change the truth of history?
I'm reminded of what the late Clark Kerr, president of the University of California system, once said: "The purpose of a university is to make students safe for ideas -- not ideas safe for students." I'm a graduate of UC Berkeley.
I could not get through this without crying. What in the world is his end game? Further marginalizing the already marginalized? What an evil man.
I am 99% abhorred by all that DeSantis represents and all that he is doing to higher education in the state of Florida. However, as a long-time professor interested in strengthening my own faculty at a private university, I am 1% embracing DeSantis' stance, hoping that will result in our ability to pick up superior faculty from Florida schools who don't want to live like that.
i am ever more grateful that i was able to go to a top-notch university in the '60s, where learning was the objective rather than something to be ridiculed and suffocated. and more and more i am becoming convinced that desantis is not just dangerous but seriously evil.
Frederick Douglass once said: “Find out just what the people will submit to and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue until they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.”
State universities rely on attracting out of state students who pay much higher tuition than those from in state. It will be interesting to see what happens over the next couple of admissions cycles to the number of applications to Florida schools from out of state students. It would also be interesting to see how many fewer women (in and out of state) decide not to apply to Florida colleges because of the state's draconian abortion law. For a supposedly "smart" guy DeSantis is extraordinarily myopic; apparently he's never heard of the law of unintended consequences.
Sadly DeSatan knows this is what he needs to do to have any hope of being the Republican nominee. He knows what the GOP wants. Heaven help us if this is America’s future.
My FL coworker loves her governor, but then she loves the last president. A subject we purposely avoid, as I am afraid what I would say about that ludicracy. I am old enough to remember Kent State University as if it were yesterday. Universities should be safe for all.
The comparison between what Desantis is doing and what happened so long ago during Kristalnacht in Germany. A dictator fears knowledge; he rules by oppression, not only physical, but intellectual. The purpose of education is to help students open their minds and develop their own ideas. But we can prevent this from spreading. The republicans are creating a scenario in which democrats are fostering anti-American ideas on children in schools. If we follow their rhetoric it becomes obvious that the only way to preserve our society is to follow Desantis' repressive plans. He declaims the Woke society for wanting to force its ideas and programs on us. Democrats don't want to defund the police, nor do they want to have totally open borders, or permit abortion at will up to and after the birth of a baby. Yet when this is repeated over and over, and spread through the right wing media, it is little wonder that so many people accept it. The only way to overcome the problem is to work diligently to tell the truth. Youngkin won in Virginia by repeating the same untruths over and over. The better candidate didn't go after him when he should have, and he lost the election as a result. If Desantis or Trump wins it will be for lack of preparation. We know how they will campaign. There is more than enough time in which to mount an effective offensive against it. When our children aren't permitted to develop their talents to the fullest, what could be more important???
Make of this what you will:
I just head an Oregon Public Radio story about the results of yesterday's election, concentrating on school board races. While one county (CORRECTED: Crook) voted in an all-right-wing-nut-job slate, in many other places the book-banners and LGBTQ-harasser slates LOST.
Everyone on the left-of-center can run on opposing intolerance. Show the crazies -- local, state, and national -- for who they are. Capitalize on their extremism.
People reading this can start now. Look up groups who are fighting the good fight, either in the courtroom (ACLU, Democracy Docket) or in electoral politics (Indivisible, When We All Vote, Progressive Turnout Project, Black Voters Matter, Fair Fight Action, voters of tomorrow), and either donate or volunteer.
Promoting turnout on election day, promoting name recognition of down-ballot race candidates, volunteering for local party offices . . . all these help get people elected. When the right people are in office, the crazies can be kept at bay.
I’d like to know how he thinks he can dictate what educational institutions do with FEDERAL funding!
I agree with your comments. I also believe that it is the outright intent of the Republican party to completely undermine higher education (especially public education). This ultimately leads to an under-educated populace, under-powered centers of science, creativity, etc., and a societal structure that is easier to manipulate and control. I grew up in a very right-wing involved Republican family 50+ years ago and this was their dogma. They hated higher education. So while I am not totally surprised, I'm still horrified to see it now.
I am grateful for my education within the UC system (UC Davis). Heaven help us if/when these systems become political fodder for autocrats and disappear.
In the state of Michigan there exists a school in the MIAA entitled Hillsdale College. This farm belt educational facility is proud of the way it turns out good little Republicans who think alike right down to the copies of the constitution they hand out like fliers to a sporting event. Not that there is anything wrong with our constitution. They provide Washington with a ample supply of loyal pages to do the electrites biding. The school should be turning out progressive thinkers instead they pride themselves in turn out little Trumps, by the hundreds. That school isn't doing anyone any favors including our country.
Donna Deegan (D) just defeated the DeSantis endorsed (R) candidate Daniel Davis in the race for Mayor of Jacksonville FL.
No individual is coming to save democracy from authoritarianism. We have to vote our way out of it.
It takes a village.
Ron the Wretched is not the only one.
Here in TexAss, our Gov and Lt Gov are trying to move each other farther to the right in the culture wars. Their latest brain fart is to abolish tenure in state colleges and universities. Positively brilliant, don't you think?
I do not understand how people are just nodding their heads and letting them do this! I get that they are trying to silence people, but referring to slaves as "forced servants" and the Japanese forced into camps as "relocated" is sickening. Then there's the whole don't tell about the holocaust. I REALLY don't get that. Where is the federal dept of education? How can Florida and other states be allowed to change the truth of history?