January 24, 2025
MEDIA ADVISORY For Immediate Release
Contact: UFF Press [email protected]
Florida is at the forefront of an assault against public education, restricting the subjects students can study from K-12 to the colleges and universities. In 2023, the Florida legislature passed SB 266 and Governor DeSantis signed it into law. One of the provisions in this law attacks General Education introductory courses and grants the Board of Governors the authority to remove courses they find to be “based on theories that systemic racism, sexism, oppression, and privilege are inherent in the institutions of the United States and were created to maintain social, political, and economic inequities.” The Board of Governors alone gets to determine what is to be considered appropriate content despite the years of faculty expertise, administrative review, and student feedback that have gone into building and managing Florida’s university curriculum.
Educators from all of Florida’s public colleges and universities are confronting and pushing back against a vast censorship on what Florida’s students have the right to learn. Join us on a virtual speak out that will feature student, faculty, parent, and national voices discussing the negative impact such laws have had upon them and higher education in general, along with the need to push back against such bureaucratic and political overreach.
What: Drop Agendas, Not Classes: A UFF Statewide Speakout
When: Monday, January 27
Time: 9:30AM EST
Zoom Registration Link: https://floridaea.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_k2Aevzv1SYKo7qqU2zIvpg
Who:
- Teresa M. Hodge, Statewide President, United Faculty of Florida
- Becky Pringle, President, National Education Association
- Leah Sauceda, Florida State University student
- Cabria Brown, Florida Atlantic University student
- Marsilla Gray, University of South Florida Graduate Assistant
- Tessa Barber, University of South Florida Graduate Assistant
- Robert Cassanello, United Faculty of Florida First Vice President, University of Central Florida Associate Professor of History
- Jeniah Jones, Florida State College of Jacksonville Professor of Pre-collegiate Studies
- Samique March-Dallas, Florida A&M University Associate Professor of Finance
- Elizabeth Key-Raimer, Hillsborough Community College Professor of Counseling
- Marie-Claire Leman, parent and education advocate
- Mia McIver, Chair, Higher Education Labor United
All media is encouraged to attend this virtual event and can RSVP at [email protected]. Several speakers are available for media interviews — requests and follow-up questions can be sent to [email protected].
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The United Faculty of Florida represents over 25,000 faculty at all 12 public universities, 15 colleges and Saint Leo University, along with graduate assistants at four universities.
