Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed legislation requiring state colleges and universities to annually survey their students, faculty and staff about their beliefs to ensure “viewpoint diversity and intellectual freedom,” Axios reports.
House Bill 233 calls for students and staff to be survey annually to determine “the extent to which competing ideas and perspectives are presented,” and whether students and faculty “feel free to express beliefs and viewpoints on campus and in the classroom.”
The legislation doesn’t specify what the survey results will be used for, but DeSantis said at a press conference that schools found to be “indoctrinating” students aren’t “worth tax dollars” and are “not something we’re going to be supporting going forward.”
“We obviously want our universities to be focused on critical thinking, academic rigor,” DeSantis said during the press conference. “We do not want them as basically hotbeds for stale ideology.”
“It used to be thought that a university campus was a place where you’d be exposed to a lot of different ideas,” DeSantis said. “Unfortunately, now the norm is, these are more intellectually repressive environments.”
The law goes into effect on July 1.
