In the three years since Ron Desantis started getting rid of the universities of Florida of ideology, my campus has changed significantly. Teachers are suddenly worried about what they could say and teach. Some began to avoid terms such as “racism”. One student recently told me that when someone used “cross -sectional” in the classroom, her trainer told her not to use this word.
Soon this could happen to schools across the country. We have all heard stories about elite institutions that are classified before President Trump’s attack on higher education. Get it from someone who knows: it could get worse – much worse.
Mr Trump is watching what has happened in Florida. The architect of the Educational Policy of Project 2025 said Florida “leads the way” to university reviews. Already, Mr Trump is threatening to draw funding from colleges that do not purify the language he considers to awaken. He called for a new supervision of some Departments of Regional Studies. He could then try to ban, as Florida has, “political or social activism”. It could weaken the protections provided by the term of office and unions of the schools. I saw this happen in my campus and I know the tolls it needed. If Trump’s administration has its way, my experience could offer a preview of what is coming for other universities.
Before Mr. Desantis began to aim at higher education, the members of the Florida School could be sure that the administrators supported our professional judgments on how to teach our students. We had open, complex discussions without fear of our careers. In a discussion in one of my ranks, female students expressed the fear that the disaster had caused and their husbands responded carefully, reflecting their own behavior – a learning experience for all. Today, this debate, I was afraid, violates a Florida law that forbids the teaching of men’s students that they should feel guilty about other men’s actions.
Since the suppression of Mr Desantis, I have seen my colleagues harassed and explored to address local issues, even outside the class. The climate of fear gives the government exactly the result it wants. Managers and members of teachers, such as supply practice, obedience to avoid even the appearance of Wokeness, stifling the type of open and political discussions that lead students to develop their own views.
One colleague told me that he stopped assigning an article on lynching and white evangelism about the fear that these terms could increase the red flags. Another said that she censors her language not only in class and campus but also in personal social media.
Several teachers have undergone efforts in trapping. Last year, a man presented as a student tried to encourage the Muslim members of the School to criticize Mr Desantis and Israel. A similar incident happened to me. In October 2024, the president of my department phoned me in his office to tell me that someone claimed that he was a student in the religion and class of science had complained that I had spent 20 minutes talking about specific candidates, including who we voted for and why. I was surprised. This never happened in this class or any other. It is opposed to the way I teach. Fortunately, Dean’s office assured me that a single, unfounded category was not a reason for disciplinary action.
Much worse than the fear of research was the way the accusation shook the confidence I thought I had with my students. Did one of them hate me so much that someone would lie to get me in trouble? After all, I am convinced that the person who made the complaint was not a student in my class, but provocative. (It was probably no coincidence that the claim was made shortly after my name appeared in a Politico article on changes in our campus.)
This incident destroyed my conviction that if I did my job well and followed the rules, I would be safe. In over 30 years at the University of Florida, I have taught thousands of students, wrote hundreds of recommendation letters and consulted countless research projects. I have published twelve books and many articles, I won research and teaching awards and served in numerous College and Universities committees. But the state doesn’t trust me to do my job.
How can I challenge my students to ask harsh questions, to follow the research wherever it goes, when I worry about what can happen to me if I do that? And how can I follow the rules when even university administrators aren’t always sure how to interpret them?
Teaching is, above all, the creation of a community in the classroom, a web of trust and curiosity that binds students and trainers to a common spiritual work. Disturbance, fear and self -censorship make this work impossible.
With Mr Trump’s recent actions, the campus atmosphere has become more intense. His commands threaten not only the humanities and the social sciences, but also the funding of STEM research. And as immigration agents are being held and released by international students, students who do not deal with campus (and even some students who are naturalized citizens) keep their heads even more.
Like Mr Desantis and Richard Nixon in front of him, Mr Trump and Vice President JD Vance believe that teachers are the enemy. They want ordinary Americans to make it difficult for college trainers, to regard us as unbearable fighters who are driven only by political ideology.
Teaching college students was the greatest gift of my professional life. I love my university and my students and do a good job. I have no desire to underestimate anyone. The same goes for my colleagues.
For those who believe that teachers are the enemy, I invite you to spend some time in our classrooms. You may find that we are, after all, everyone on the same side.
Anna Peterson is a professor at the Department of Religion at the University of Florida. Her books include “with God on our side: religion, social movements and social change” and “works justice: material practice in moral theory”.
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