Students and Faculty Organizing Against the Right in Florida

Office Hours Higher Ed

In this episode we speak with faculty and student organizers from three Florida campuses.

In Florida, Republicans are attacking higher education on several fronts. In late October, Ron DeSantis and the chancellor of Florida’s State University system ordered college presidents to deactivate Students for Justice in Palestine on their campuses. This continues a longer trend, which our guests address, a trend of right wing attacks on trans students and on disciplines that the right sees as too woke, such as ethnic studies and gender studies. These attacks also undermine labor rights for faculty. Despite the intensity of these attacks and the radical right’s gains, our guests see opportunities for mass politicization and cross-coalitional solidarity.

Our interviewees provide an overview of the right wing attacks on higher education in Florida over the last year, and put them into a larger national context of higher ed privatization. Then we get into the different campaigns taking place on each campus, and break down some of the challenges of coalition building, overcoming student and faculty apathy, and attempting to fight for a more militant faculty union.

Our interviewees:

Katie is a Visiting Teaching Faculty at Florida International University and is the Membership Chair of the faculty union, UFF-FIU. She also organizes with Free FIU.

Robert Cassanello is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Central Florida, president of the faculty union, UFF-UCF, and the faculty advisor for YDSA at UCF.

Allan Frasheri is an undergraduate at the University of Florida, a co-chair of YDSA at UF, and an organizer with Free UF.

Links:

Florida Is Worth Fighting For: A Report on YDSA Organizing at Florida International University | Reform & Revolution

FIU community protests HB999 and administration complacency - PantherNOW

https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/fiu-faculty-union-to-protest-stop-woke-act-15606486

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