USF received a state-mandate to disband a pro-Palestinian student group. State University System Chancellor Ray Rodrigues called on schools to disband the local chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine. Gov. Ron DiSastrous and Rodrigues think it’s tacit support for terrorism. USF is pushing back, as it should.
It’s also pushing forward.
It plans to host forums for civil discourse with differing viewpoints about the history of the region in the spring. Bottom line: This is about free speech and open dialogue. Disagreement is allowed—indeed, expected. It’s not for everyone’s endorsement—but for anyone’s civil participation.
It’s what universities—even those squirming under the ideological thumb of Tallahassee—do. It’s called disagreement with respect–for others and for the First Amendment. But not a place for antisemiticism, Islamophobia and cherry-picked reality. This is about common sense, common good, codes of conduct and intellectual and ideological exchange. Or what’s a university for?