Leiter on Academic Bill of Rights in Florida

Professor Brian Leiter (U. Texas) speaks out
and invites comments about the Florida bill,
HB 837, entitled 'Student and Faculty Academic
Freedom in Postsecondary Education', filed
by Dennis Baxley in the Florida House of
Representatives.

According to Leiter, the three themes of the bill
are:

[1] (i) Students should have access to a broad range of
serious scholarly opinion and (ii) institutions should
promote a plurality of serious scholarly methodologies
and perspectives in the humanities and social sciences
and arts.

[2] (i) Student funds should be distributed on a
viewpoint neutral basis and (ii) the institution
should maintain a posture of neutrality on
substantive political and religious disagreements,
etc.

[3] Instructors should not (i) persistently introduce
(ii) controversial material that has (iii) no relation
to the subject of study and (iv) serves no legitimate
purpose.