Clay Calvert, director of the Marion B. Brechner First Amendment Project and Brechner Eminent Scholar in Mass Communication at the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications, is quoted in “Universities Required to Monitor ‘Viewpoint Diversity’” published in University World News on June 26.

The article focuses on a new Florida law requiring state colleges and universities to conduct an annual assessment of the intellectual freedom and viewpoint diversity of students on their campuses. It also enables students who feel their freedom of speech has be violated the opportunity to sue their educational institutions.

According to Calvert, “The law requires that the universities conduct the survey. But they are not compelling students to answer the survey.”

“Which students are going to be more prone to complete the survey? Let’s say 85% of the students in class think things are just fine. They will have no particular motive or reason to fill out another survey,” said Calvert. “So, there may be a kind of bias because the students who are most motivated to complete the survey are those who have some kind of axe to grind or feel that their point of view is being suppressed.”

Calvert adds that the results of the survey could have a chilling effect on professors and students. He said this chill could develop into something nefarious if the data is used as a weapon for the legislature to withhold funding from public universities that based upon the data that are gathered somehow skew to the left or to the right.

“And,” he adds “since, Florida is a conservative state, and the legislature is Republican controlled, one would suspect that this legislation is politically motivated and indeed would be a tool that would withhold funding from universities that appear to stifle conservative students from speaking up.”

Posted: June 28, 2021
Category: College News, Marion B. Brechner First Amendment Project News
Tagged as: Clay Calvert, Marion B. Brechner First Amendment Project