Straws in the Wind - Part 401

From WLRN: In a move that students and their attorney allege is a gross violation of the First Amendment, Florida International University is moving forward with disciplinary actions against seven students who participated in a silent protest at a campus event in March. The students this week were given a written reprimand, and are being ordered to record videos about FIU policies they allegedly violated.

They told WLRN they worry the videos could force them to express opinions they do not agree with. The basic facts of the case are undisputed: A group of students sat in the audience while FIU President Jeanette Nuñez held an on-campus event March 13 with former Major League Baseball star Alex Rodriguez. About a half hour into the program, students stood up and unveiled shirts that said “ICE OFF FIU,” and stood silently for a few minutes. They then left the event. FIU maintains that the silent protest violated a campus policy against “expressive activities” taking place indoors...

Full story at https://www.wlrn.org/government-politics/2026-07-01/fiu-students-silent-protest-immigration.

Straws in the Wind - Part 244

From Inside Higher Ed: Sociology faculty at Florida International University are outraged that their department is requiring them to use a state-approved textbook to teach an introductory course as part of the university’s general education curriculum. They say the state’s process for developing the textbook and new course framework was opaque, rushed and designed to pressure universities into adopting censored learning materials without a legal directive to do so.

Furthermore, the textbook—a heavily edited version of an open-source sociology textbook titled Introduction to Sociology 3e—now makes only cursory mentions of important sociological concepts regarding race, gender, sexuality and other topics that have drawn Republican ire. Faculty say it whitewashes the field’s key principles, diminishes the quality of education for students and intensifies the state’s attacks on academic freedom. ...Compared to the original 669-page textbook, the new version is just 267 pages. Unlike the original, the state-approved version doesn’t include chapters on media and technology, global inequality, race and ethnicity, social stratification, or gender, sex and sexuality...

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty-issues/academic-freedom/2026/01/29/florida-introduces-sanitized-sociology-textbook.