How the University of Florida's leadership has returned to its Jim Crow era roots
Ol' Hobbs's Monday Musings
Last week the University of Florida, under the leadership of President Kent Fuchs, notified three political science faculty members that they would not be allowed to testify as experts in lawsuits challenging voting restrictions laws that Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis championed last spring to counter what he claimed was a stolen election in 2020 that found Democrats winning the White House and other down ballot races.
From the outset, a number of voter advocacy groups noted concerns that the “reforms” were aimed towards minority voters in general, and Black voters specifically, who turned out early and in record numbers to elect Democrats across America. The so-called “Blue Wave” included a historic run-off last winter that saw Morehouse alumnus Raphael Warnock and Jon Osoff, both Democrats, being elected to the Senate from Georgia.
Throughout its existence, UF, a school that recently cracked the top five public colleges and universities according to U.S. News & World Report, has allowed faculty members to testify about any number of issues and controversies in courts of law. Despite this common fact, the University told political scientists Daniel A. Smith, Michael McDonald and Sharon Wright Austin that any testimony on these caustic voter rights lawsuits “could present a conflict of interest to the executive branch” and “harm the school’s interests by testifying against the law signed by DeSantis in May,” per the Washington Post.
When I read these reports in the New York Times and Politico this past weekend I was livid, so much so that I penned the following e-mail to President Fuchs—and copied the entire UF Board of Trustees:
“Dear President Fuchs:
My name is Chuck Hobbs, and I am a 1998 graduate of the University of Florida Levin College of Law and the publisher of the Hobbservation Point, a blog (and separate newsletter) established in 2017 that has been viewed by over a half-million followers worldwide. I am based in Florida's Capital City--Tallahassee.
Prior to attending UF Law, I earned a bachelor's degree in history in 1994 from Morehouse College, the alma mater of civil rights leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King and famed Tallahassee Rev. C.K. Steele, among others. I also earned a master's with a concentration in history from Florida A&M University, the first public institution founded in our state in 1887 to educate formerly enslaved Blacks. As you may know, FAMU's graduates like Broadus Hartley and Patricia Stephens Due worked in conjunction with Dr. King and Rev. Steele to rid our state of its notorious Jim Crow segregationist past, and that George Starke, a Morehouse alumnus, and W. George Allen, a FAMU alumnus, were the first two Blacks to successfully enroll at UF in the late 1950s!
I give my background as a prelude to expressing my profound disappointment in UF's recent decision to prevent professors within its employ from testifying in lawsuits emanating from Gov. Ron Desantis's voting reform measures that a number of civil rights groups, including the League of Women Voters and the NAACP, have argued will dilute voting power among Black voters.
Please note that this e-mail is not designed to debate the merits of our governor's political predilections, rather, as former General Counsel for the Florida NAACP (2006-10) who served in that capacity under the Republican gubernatorial administrations of Jeb Bush and Charlie Crist, I know first hand how critically important professors from our state's public institutions for higher learning were in providing testimony, both in court as well as before legislative sub-committees, for the furtherance of public policy that balanced the rights of majority and minority political constituents in our state.
Thus, Mr. President, I found it quite curious when I read the following excerpt from a Politico article written by veteran Tallahassee based Associated Press journalist Gary Fineout, one which quotes your spokesperson, Hessy Fernandez, as saying: "The University of Florida has a long track record of supporting free speech and our faculty’s academic freedom, and we will continue to do so. It is important to note that the university did not deny the First Amendment rights or academic freedom of professors Dan Smith, Michael McDonald and Sharon Austin. Rather, the university denied requests of these full-time employees to undertake outside paid work that is adverse to the university’s interests as a state of Florida institution.”
The problem, Mr. President, is that Ms. Fernandez's statement defies credulity and logic based upon this issue! Since UF (a state government funded institution) has denied the request of three employees to provide testimony it deems "adverse to the university's interest as a state of Florida institution," this despite the fact that the litigation at issue (Black voter rights) has nothing directly to do with UF or its interests as an institution of higher learning, then the deductive analysis is that the government actor (UF) is chilling their employees' rights to speak freely on their own time (pursuant to applicable leave or additional employment regulations that each Florida University maintains)! This simple syllogism that I just described, Mr. President, is a textbook violation of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, one that provides: ‘Congress (or individual state governments and their assigns, like UF), shall make no law...abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press…’
Again, while the merits of Florida's recent voter laws will be litigated in court and debated in the court of public opinion, what is most troubling to me as a Black graduate of UF is that the University would render a decision that gives the appearance of extreme deference to a sitting governor and his political ideology on an issue that could detrimentally impact Black voters in our state. Black voters, I remind, who produce Black students that are studying at UF at this time; Black student-athletes who are earning hundreds of millions of dollars each year as players on the Florida Gators football, basketball, and baseball teams; Blacks in Florida (and across America) who provide scores of millions in dollars in licensing revenue from UF apparel that they proudly wear while exclaiming, ‘Go Gators!’
Cognizant of the financial bottom line, I am calling upon Black parents, students, athletes, fans, and our non-Black allies to withhold their tithes, talents, and support until such time as you and the UF Board of Trustees realize the grievous error in your choice to prevent these professors from testifying freely—and in the same manner that UF professors and staff members have testified in court and public hearings from time immemorial.
I sincerely hope that your conscience will allow you to rectify this tone-deaf decision, one that is a relic of Florida's Jim Crow past—not a symbol of our state's multicultural present and future.
Respectfully,
Chuck Hobbs”
As the controversy grew this past weekend, the University released a news statement that the professors can testify IF they choose not to accept pay. But again, UF's professors are paid all the time as experts, as I can personally attest having used UF College of Medicine and other science experts in myriad cases during my active trial practice career where their fees ranged anywhere from $250 to $750 per hour depending on the matter.
Thus, my conclusion that UF is on the wrong side of history on this issue—and my decision to boycott the school to express my displeasure in its leadership!
Thank you for subscribing to the Hobbservation Point. Have a wonderful Monday!