{"id":125209,"date":"2026-01-20T18:46:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T18:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/125209\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T18:46:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T18:46:08","slug":"fiu-is-boiling-the-frog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/125209\/","title":{"rendered":"FIU is boiling the frog"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cFIU is drifting toward right-wing political dominance. Unfortunately, most students and faculty won\u2019t notice until it\u2019s too late.\u201d | Courtesy of Conor Moore, PantherNOW<\/p>\n

PantherNOW Editorial Board<\/p>\n

FIU is drifting toward right-wing political dominance. Unfortunately, most students won\u2019t notice until it\u2019s too late, despite the faculty\u2019s<\/a> continued efforts to raise awareness of the issue.<\/p>\n

Two years ago, the DeSantis administration flagged 22 courses<\/a>, targeting them for discussing topics such as systemic racism, misogyny, and privilege.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last year, FIU police officers were granted the ability to deport students under Agreement 287(g). From going after academic freedoms to the students themselves, the state government continues to escalate its meddling in university affairs across Florida.<\/p>\n

The metaphor of \u201cboiling the frog\u201d describes this situation perfectly: danger creeps in gradually until it\u2019s impossible to escape. These actions remain part of a deliberate strategy, framed by the DeSantis administration to assert control over academic freedom, inch by inch.<\/p>\n

Not that it\u2019s their fault, either. This is part of a deliberate strategy by the DeSantis administration to ensure control over academic freedom in a game of inches.<\/p>\n

Consider the Adam Smith Center, a non-partisan think-tank that hosts primarily right-wing<\/a> politicians and leaders<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The state is perfectly willing to spend money on bringing in former politicians and journalists to speak, which is, of course, welcome, but the state refuses to invest a dollar in diversity or equity despite FIU\u2019s status as the nation\u2019s largest<\/a> Hispanic-serving Institution.<\/p>\n

Or, SB-266<\/a>, prohibiting any public university in the state of Florida from spending money on DEI and so-called \u201cwoke ideology\u201d programs.<\/p>\n

Moreover, the removal of sociology<\/a> from UCC requirements reinforces the ongoing infringement on university autonomy throughout the state.<\/p>\n

This academic oversight goes all the way to University President Jeanette Nu\u00f1ez herself, DeSantis\u2019 former Lt. Gov<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While we do not wish to indict University President Nu\u00f1ez herself, the picture painted is clear: Tallahassee wishes to exert more and more control over the academic lives of students and faculty by putting one of their own in.<\/p>\n

At worst, it reveals how deeply DeSantis has committed to ensuring that MAGA ideology seeps into every classroom, where academic censorship reigns supreme under the guise of \u201cprotecting\u201d adults from \u201cwoke\u201d and \u201cDEI\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have been pressured to monitor and regulate the information we include in our learning objects. Recently, the BOG Regulation 9.016 on Prohibited Expenditures has been applied to the creation of library research guides,\u201d said Christopher Jimenez, an associate librarian at FIU\u2019s library system, in an interview with PantherNOW.<\/p>\n

BOG Regulation 9.016 <\/a>\u00a0bans state universities from using state or federal funds on programs or activities that involve DEI, political or social activism, or anything deemed to advocate for those concepts, with only narrow legal and accreditation-related exceptions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis atmosphere is ripe for self-censorship practices through overcompliance,\u201d said Jimenez.<\/p>\n

When the shift toward right-wing political dominance remains so acute that it involves FIU PD being legally deputized to act as ICE agents, it is a clear sign that things have gone too far and need correcting.<\/p>\n

Taken together, these cases represent a sustained effort by the DeSantis administration, committed to reducing universities, previously considered bastions of free thought, into superficially apolitical propaganda machines that tacitly endorse conservative ideology from the top.<\/p>\n

As a campus, we should urge our Student Government to more actively advocate for university autonomy and syllabus control in the face of state interference and to stand with faculty who continue to protest in defense of academic freedom.<\/p>\n

FIU is the boiling frog. And unless we act soon, the pot will finish boiling with all of us in it.<\/p>\n

About Post Author<\/p>\n

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