In 2019, the Florida Board of Governors developed the State University System Free Expression Statement, which was signed by the chancellor and all presidents of the 12 SUS universities. The SUS Board of Governors subsequently adopted it as SUS policy. In January, the final report of the BOG's Civil Discourse Initiative was disseminated and one of the recommendations was that “the leadership of each university board of trustees, faculty senate, and student government annually review and endorse the Board’s Statement of Free Expression and commit to the principles of civil discourse.”
At the March meeting of the USF Faculty Senate, this topic was discussed. Several senators expressed concerns with some of the language, such as:
- "It is equally important not to stifle the dissemination of any ideas, even if other
members of our community may find those ideas abhorrent" (bold added).
- Are we to allow abhorrent opinions ("profoundly racist, sexist, transphobic") in the classroom that are not founded in research?
- We were not consulted in the creation of the statement and there is no option to revise/amend the statement
- The statement contradicts some existing laws of the State of Florida
Several options were discussed, such as creating our freedom of expression document so that we are not seen as not endorsing freedom of expression rather than not endorsing this specific document or creating an opinion document to identify concerns regardless of if we vote to endorse or not endorse to identify our concerns.
The final resolution at this meeting was to table the discussion until the next Faculty Senate meeting so that the options above can be explored. Provost Wilcox also suggested that President Boaz communicate with the faculty representatives on the BOG and with other SUS faculty senates.