Ron DeSantis Wants To Cultivate ‘Viewpoint Diversity’ by Censoring Universities

A bill introduced at the Florida House this week aims to erase a wide range of academic freedom protections for faculty at state colleges and universities and enact strict requirements on university curricula.

The bill was originally proposed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis in January.  “In Florida, we will build off of our higher education reforms by aligning core curriculum to the values of liberty and the Western tradition,” said DeSantis in a January press release, adding that the legislation would be “eliminating politicized bureaucracies like DEI, increasing the amount of research dollars for programs that will feed key industries with talented Florida students, and empowering presidents and boards of trustees to recruit and hire new faculty.”

House Bill 999 was introduced on Tuesday by Rep. Alex Andrade (R–Pensacola) and seeks to redesign Florida public universities around the supposed goal of “civic discourse that recognizes the importance of viewpoint diversity, intellectual rigor, and an evidence-based approach to history.” To accomplish this goal, the bill would explicitly ban major or minor programs in “Critical Race Theory, Gender Studies, or Intersectionality, or any derivative major or minor of these belief systems.” The bill also restricts general education classes, stating that they must not “include a curriculum that teaches identity politics, such as Critical Race Theory, or defines American history as contrary to the creation of a new nation based on universal principles stated in the Declaration of Independence.”

In addition to restricting what faculty can teach, the bill seeks to give state political appointees radically increased power in the hiring and firing of