Prof Henry Reichman - AAUP vs Florida University System

The American Association of University Professors declares in a preliminary report that Florida's public colleges and universities are "under assault" by recent efforts such as the ban on DEI courses and the overhaul at New College in Sarasota. We speak with Professor Henry Reichman, professor emeritus at Cal State - East Bay. He chairs the AAUP's committee on academic freedom.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Gordon Bird here with Beyond the News. The American Association of University Professors is
declaring that higher education in Florida faceswhat it calls and ideologically driven assault unparalleled
in US history. They say itthreatens the survival of meaningful higher education in
Florida. The AAUP has issued apreliminary report on recent actions by the governor,

(00:20):
the legislature, and his appointees inthe university system. We have reached
out to the Board of Governors andthe chancellor of the state university system for
a response. Right now, wehave Professor Henry Reichman, who is Professor
Emeritus of History at California State Universityat East Bay, and he chairs the
AAUP's Committee on Academic Freedom. ProfessorReichman, thank you for joining us.

(00:43):
Thank you. Now, a lotof the details are familiar to our audience
as ongoing news that we've been reporting. But if you could give us the
bullet points of your concerns about what'shappening in the state university system. Well,
this is a preliminary report. We'vebeen speaking to dozens and dozens of
faculty members throughout the state and thisis our preliminary report. We expect a

(01:07):
final report to come out, probablyin the fall, but we had this
at this stage. Four main findings. One is our concern that the takeover
of New College of Florida on ideologicalgrounds, and the rather dramatic efforts they
have taken at that school to overturnlongstanding principles have shared governance and academic freedom

(01:34):
and tenure, would provide a modelfor the rest of the state. We
go into some detail about that.Our second major finding in our report is
that it's not just the political assaultfrom the legislature and the governor that we're
concerned about, but the rather atbest cowardly and worst complicit response of so

(01:57):
many college and diversity administrators throughout thesystem. And then underlying all this,
of course, is the legislative programthat Governor DeSantis and the legislature have enacted,
the series of bills that I imagineyour listeners are aware of, the
so called Stop Woke Act, etc. Some of which are still up to

(02:22):
challenge in the courts, but takenas a whole, provide a model for
what we believe is an inappropriate politicizationof higher education. And that our final
finding the report is that even thoughmuch of that legislation has not yet been

(02:43):
implemented or as being held up inthe courts. We still encountered a rather
troubling atmosphere of self censorship and achilling effect on faculty members in the state
college and university systems. And yousay in your report that that also you

(03:04):
think is expanding into private universities thatyou would think would not be affected at
all by what the governor and legislatureare doing. Right well, historically,
of course, what you know,what happens in one part of higher education
can usually not be confined in justthat area. And we have a number

(03:27):
of we've had come to a numberof interviews. We're not totally you know,
we're not We're not at all throughwith our interviews faculty members not only
in the state college and university system, but at private institutions who feel that,
in particular that their administrators UH andtheir trustees are, if if not
complying with what the governor is tryingto do in the state universities, certainly

(03:53):
have their eye on it and areacting overly, cautiously and ultimately complicitly devil's
advocate here. Given the state's firmgrip and the legislatures and the governor's firm
grip on the board of trustees andgovernors. Any pushed back from administrators is

(04:15):
that they may feel that they aredoing more by staying at their posts and
finding other ways to work around this. Are are would they be accomplishing anything
by challenging this other than martyrdom.Well, first of all, martyrdom may
have its benefits, but look,I do not minimize the bind in which

(04:43):
so many and university administrators, andnot only in Florida have in such situations.
But ultimately, I think we haveto ask the question that was actually
asked by the AUP back in thenineteen fifties when it investigated the accommodation of
colleges and universities to the McCarthy erahysteria anti communist hysteria, and they argued

(05:12):
that the temptations and I'm quoting directlythe temptation to yield a little in order
to preserve a great deal as strongyet to yield a little is in such
matters to run the risk of sacrificingall. And I really think that more
administrators, and not just in Florida, need to develop a spine and take

(05:34):
risks. There is a lot ofdisagreement about issues over d EI and in
an environment where there's great division alongpartisan lines even as to whether college is
Worthwhile enrollment is down from pre pandemiclevels and doesn't seem to be rising,

(05:54):
how could these administrators, professors,faculty convince the voters and taxpayers of Florida
that what the state is doing onhigher education is wrong when increasing numbers are
expressing the opinion that college itself iseither an enemy or a waste of time.
Well, I would contest whether they'reincreasing numbers are actually saying that.

(06:15):
I think there are two factors involvedin particular enrollment applients. One is demographic
and in fact, in the higherED community. Well before these assaults,
higher ED community has been addressing theproblem of the fact that the college age
population has plateaued and will be shrinking. The second factor is, of course,

(06:36):
is is that over the last thirtyor forty years, we have been
placing the cost of college increasingly onstudents and their families, if not in
higher tuition, but also in increasinglystudent student debt burdens. So I think

(06:57):
those are factors that I would cautionat the notion that somehow colleges and universities
have become the centers of um ofpolitical correctness and wokeness or whatever the word
of the day happens to be,is belied by some simple facts. Uh.
The overwhelming majority of college students majorin subjects that have nothing to do

(07:26):
with the so called controversial issues thatthe governor focuses on. Most are in
science, technology, engineering, andmasses so called STEM disciplines. In business
uh, in healthcare uh uh anyother areas, and even in the humanities
and social sciences. Uh. Mostmajors, most students who study those courses

(07:51):
are not enrolled in so called highlycontroversial areas. These are basically a red
herring your organization. The AUP hassanctioned Florida universities in the past. One
example, the University of South Florida, not far from where I am,
was flagged by AAUP for many yearsbecause of the activities of a legislative committee

(08:11):
called the John's Committee that was activein the fifties and sixties and was targeting
communist influence and also targeted what wenow know and described as members of the
LGBTQ community. Now, how doesyour organization flag universities on academic freedom issues
and how does that affect issues suchas recruiting faculty. Well, we have

(08:33):
two methods of what you call sanctioning. One we call our censure list,
which is university administer illustrations who havebeen censured for particularly egregious violations of academic
freedom, usually after an extensive investigationby the AUP. And then another for
our sanctioned list unity sanctioned for violationsof norms of academic governance. Usually those

(09:01):
actions are taken by the AUPIECE Counciland our committee will only be making in
our final report recommendations of what inparticular to do now. Those lists are
not, I want to stress theyare not boycotts. We do not advocate
academic boycotts. They are simply alist designed to alert the academic community to

(09:24):
problems that may exist at particular institutions. Our experience has been is that the
more prestigious and the larger the institutionmay be, the more concerned they are
to not get on the list,and the more eager they are to get
off it once they get on it. Largely because our lists are a kind

(09:45):
of for most faculty members and forpeople who believe in high quality education are
a kind of badge of dishonor thatI think academic leaders really want to avoid.
But we only have moral suasion.We have no legal power, nor
do we claim to that we shouldhave legal power. There's a lot to

(10:11):
follow here, and this drama willcontinue, involving in Florida's university system and
the governor and the legislature. Weare speaking with Henry Reichman, Professor emeritus
of History at California State University atEast Bay. He chairs the American Association
of University Professor's Committee on Academic Freedom. He's written extensively on the topic,
and we appreciate his time. ProfessorReichman, thank you very much for joining

(10:35):
us on Beyond the News. Thankyou for having me