Saying it opposes “any form of academic censorship,” the United Faculty of Florida on Monday objected to a directive issued this month by university system Chancellor Ray Rodrigues about reviewing textbooks and other materials for “antisemitic material” or “anti-Israeli” bias.
“We reject the premise that this directive is a good faith effort to uncover ‘bias,’" the statement said. “Instead, we recognize it as another politically motivated attack on academic freedom aimed at chilling speech and intimidating faculty and graduate teaching assistants.”
In an Aug. 2 email to university presidents, Rodrigues said the university system would conduct a keyword search on course descriptions and syllabi.
“Any course that contains the following keywords: Israel, Israeli, Palestine, Palestinian, Middle East, Zionism, Zionist, Judaism, Jewish, or Jews will be flagged for review,” said the email, which was included with the United Faculty of Florida statement.
“This process will ensure that all universities are reviewing the same courses, and nothing falls through the cracks.”
The directive came after controversy at campuses across the country stemming from protests about the war between Israel and Hamas.
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