Florida to Require Colleges to Survey Students, Staff About Views to Increase Diversity

Florida passed a bill on Tuesday that will require public colleges and universities in the state to survey students and staff to assess "intellectual freedom and viewpoint diversity."

The bill, HB233, was signed by Governor Ron DeSantis on Tuesday and will go into effect on July 1.

The bill states that the Florida Board of Education "shall select or create an objective, nonpartisan, and statistically valid survey to be used by each institution which considers the extent to which competing ideas and perspectives are presented and members of the college community, including students, faculty, and staff, feel free to express their beliefs and viewpoints on campus and in the classroom."

According to the bill, the state's board of education will be required to annually compile the survey results and publish an assessment at the beginning of each school year. The bill, however, does not explicitly state what will be done with the results of the surveys.

"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 during a press conference on Tuesday.

"Unfortunately now, the norm is really, these are more intellectually repressive environments....Students should not be shielded from ideas and we want robust First Amendment speech on our college and university campuses."

DeSantis also said that parents in the state are worried that their children will be "indoctrinated," and suggested that universities and colleges could face budget cuts if they do so.

"We obviously want our universities to be focused on critical thinking, academic rigor," DeSantis said. "We do not want them as basically hotbeds for stale ideology. That's not worth tax dollars and that's not something that we're going to be supporting moving forward."

Newsweek reached out to DeSantis' office for further comment but did not receive a response in time for publication.

The bill's sponsor, state Senator Ray Rodrigues, said in a statement: "We have a responsibility to teach students how to think for themselves rather than indoctrinating them on what to think."

"Without a measurement of intellectual diversity, it is impossible to know if Florida taxpayers are providing an education or an indoctrination. Governor DeSantis understands the difference and I am grateful for his commitment to ensuring viewpoint diversity exists on our campuses," Rodrigues said.

In response to the bill's signing, the University of Florida said in a statement sent to the Tampa Bay Times that the university is a "marketplace of ideas where a wide variety of opinions are expressed and independent inquiry and vigorous academic deliberation are valued."

"We believe the survey will reflect that, and we look forward to widespread participation across campus," the statement said.