Protests on college and university campuses aren’t new. Student activism goes back decades, to the civil rights movement and Vietnam. Elected officials and administrators have long torn their hair over how to keep the issues of the day off campuses.
Just last week, protests erupted at Florida universities against the actions of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, known as ICE.
A bill (SB 1736/HB 725) that would regulate political activity at FL public universities.
Meanwhile, the Florida Legislature is considering legislation (SB 1736/HB 725) that would regulate political activity at public institutions of higher education. The sponsors, Sen. Gayle Harrell, R-Stuart, and Rep. Peggy Gossett-Seidman, R-Highland Beach, say its purpose is to level the political playing field at those institutions.
The bill would prevent partisan political parties, voter registration drives, candidates, campaigns and fundraising at public institutions, which the sponsors say belong to the taxpayers.
Impartiality is needed, say Harrell and Gossett-Seidman. For instance, on some campuses, members of the faculty won’t sponsor Republican student organizations.
Lawmakers speaking at committee meetings and in the House chamber.
“There are schools that don’t have Republican clubs,” said Gossett-Seidman. “We’re just trying to promote fairness because students cannot find sponsors on the staff. It’s not a partisan bill.”
“Sometimes there are not faculty members who will sponsor, say, a Republican student organization,” Harrell said. “And because there’s not a professor who will do it, then you can’t have one. That should not be the case. I don’t know where that’s happening, but I have heard that. My goal is to make sure we have as much open dialogue in a civil manner on campus.”
But Robert Cassanello, president of the United Faculty of Florida, says campuses are typically a place for engaging students, faculty members and employees in the issues of the day. “It sounds like some legislators are threatened by that. This piece of legislation is meant to restrict that.”
And Andrew Spar, president of the Florida Education Association — the statewide teachers union — says Florida is increasingly stifling dialogue in education.
“What we’re seeing happen across college and university campuses — and even in our pre-K through 12 public school — is a stifling of honest debate and discussion,” he says.
Banning and prohibiting?
The measure requires that “If a student organization for one of the two major political parties is organized at a public institution of higher education, then the other major political party must be organized on equal terms. The institution shall approve a staff member to sponsor each organization or designate two students to cosponsor the organization.”
It would prohibit the use of emails or campus property for voter registration drives, political campaigns, and all other partisan political activity, on the grounds that those assets belong to the taxpayers.
It would ban political parties, political committees, and candidates for public office from campaigning or appearing on campus in any partisan political manner unless equal access and equal time is given to all the candidates and parties.
An organization maintaining that it is nonpartisan would have to provide the public institution of higher education, in advance of any campus activity, with a copy of its current and valid registration as a third-party voter registration organization.
Further, the proposal would ban candidates from holding partisan voter registration events on campuses or via institutional communications.
“The bill is framed as ‘leveling the playing field,’” wrote Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, “but in practice it looks less like neutral guardrails and more like deliberate new barriers to campus civic engagement. It flatly bans candidates from holding partisan voter registration events on campus or using institutional communications—exactly the kinds of outreach that help students participate in democracy…Democracy shouldn’t punish engagement.”
Deliberate new barriers at universities?
Eskamani says she’s often on college campuses because students invite her and because she cares about their civic engagement.
“College campuses should be places where students are encouraged to participate, not places where administrators become gatekeepers and ordinary civic activity gets treated like a problem. HB 725/SB 1736 creates a permission-based system that will deter voter outreach and weaken First Amendment protections.”
Cassanello, an associate professor of history at the University of Central Florida, agrees. He finds the bill “troubling…Someone flagged it and said, ‘This is a violation of the First Amendment.’ It sounds like they’re trying to restrict campuses as campaign sites.”
Genesis Robinson, the executive director of Equal Ground, says his organization, a voting-rights organization focused on engaging Black voters, considers opposing the bill a priority.
“We don’t think it is the role of the legislature – or the government – to censor or control student politics,” he said.
Chilling effect on speech and participation
In recent years, the Republican-controlled Florida Legislature has pushed through a series of laws that curtailed the scope of grassroots voter registration groups. The state’s GOP leaders say the measures were passed to eliminate fraud – although the state’s elections supervisors opposed them.
Brad Ashwell, director of All Voting is Local Action Florida, says Harrell and Gossett-Seidman’s measure builds on ongoing efforts to restrict voter registration groups in the state. It goes far beyond reasonable campus management of political activities, he says. “It inserts government oversight into core political speech by forcing voter registration groups to seek prior approval from universities with little guidance to prevent bias or arbitrary decision making.”
Eskamani agrees. “It also sets up ‘equitable access’ rules that sound fair in theory but are vague and unworkable in real life, and they will predictably push campuses to avoid political engagement altogether rather than risk violating the law. That’s a chilling effect on speech and participation.”
Last week demonstrators protested against ICE collaboration at the University of South Florida and Florida State University for collaborating with ICE, with students holding signs reading “ICE Off Campus” and “Protect Our Students.”
Florida is increasingly stifling dialogue in education.
In November, Students for Socialism at the University of Florida held a walk-out to protest the UF Police Department’s contract with ICE.
Harrell and Gossett-Seidman are adamant their measure promotes fair and open dialogue among different organizations that want to have a presence on campus.
“Of course, they need permission to do that, but they also need to make sure there’s an openness to all parties to do that,” Harrell says. “And in some situations, that hasn’t been the case.”
Margie Menzel has worked at WFSU, the News Service of Florida and Gannett News Service. She earned her B.A. in history at Vanderbilt University and her M.S. in journalism at Florida A&M University.
