Dear Friend,
As you may remember from last legislative session, Florida’s higher education institutions are under attack via HB999/SB266.
This is sweeping legislation that not only bans diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs within our colleges and universities but it also attempts to insert conservative orthodoxy into the higher education classroom via changes being proposed to General Education courses.
General Education (Gen Ed), also known as General Education Requirements (GER), is a set of courses that undergraduate students are typically required to take as part of their degree program. HB999/SB266 requires changes to be made to these courses, and this week the Board of Governors (the body of gubernatorial appointments who oversee Florida’s university system) have opened up the public comment process for draft recommended course revisions that align with the new law.
This is your chance to be heard, and share feedback on draft recommendations for General Education core courses in each of the five disciplines: Communication, Humanities, Mathematics, Natural Sciences, and Social Sciences.
Your comment can be to keep the course as currently described, eliminate that course from the core, or modify the description of the course with your suggested changes.
I encourage you to share your feedback and emphasize the importance of academic freedom and trusting professors to lead with their expertise versus be censored by the state.
As a UCF graduate myself and now PhD student: I thank you for your help in maintaining the integrity of Florida’s public universities.
Onward,
Rep. Anna V. Eskamani