‘Intellectual Freedom’ proposal re-emerges

December 14, 2020

NSF Staff

A Senate Republican on Monday began a renewed effort to pass a controversial proposal that would require state colleges and universities to conduct annual assessments of  “intellectual  freedom and viewpoint diversity” at the institutions. Sen. Ray Rodrigues, R-Estero, filed the proposal (SB 264) for consideration during the 2021 legislative session, which starts in March. Rodrigues, who was elected to the Senate last month, unsuccessfully tried to pass such a measure during the 2019 and 2020 sessions while he served in the House. He ran into opposition from powerful Senate Appropriations Chairman Rob Bradley, R-Fleming Island, and from some higher-education faculty members. But Bradley left the Senate last month because of term limits. Under the bill, the State Board of Education and the state university system’s Board of Governors would require state colleges and universities to conduct the annual assessments, using surveys that consider “the extent to which competing ideas and perspectives are presented and members of the college community feel free to express their beliefs and viewpoints on campus and in the classroom,” said the portion of the bill involving state colleges. Nearly identical wording is in the universities portion of the bill. Rodrigues has said in the past that it is important to know whether people feel free to “express their beliefs and viewpoints on campus and in the classroom.” But critics, in part, have raised questions about whether the results of the surveys could affect hiring practices at colleges and universities.