Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and his administration are aggressively crafting regulations to liberate students, faculty, and administrators from the so-called diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI, regime at state-funded colleges and universities, according to a document leaked to The Chronicle of Higher Education.

The draft regulations were circulated to the state’s 17-member Board of Governors, which regulates the Sunshine State's university system. The new rules, expected to take effect this spring, focus on what expenses are authorized and what expenses are not. 

A state university or state university direct-support organization may not expend any funds, regardless of source, to purchase membership in, or goods and services from, any organization that discriminates on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, disability, or religion.

DeSantis signed the anti-DEI legislation May 15 at an event in Sarasota. It forbids public higher education institutions from using taxpayer funds to advance political, social, and cultural agendas that violate Florida’s anti-discrimination laws.

The governor said he was signing the bill to protect the progress the state has made to improve public colleges and universities. 

“Florida has ranked number one in higher education for seven years in a row, and by signing this legislation, we are ensuring that Florida's institutions encourage diversity of thought, civil discourse, and the pursuit of truth for generations to come," DeSantis said.

“Florida is taking a stand for empowering students, parents, and educators to focus on creating opportunities for our younger generations,” he said. “I am happy to have worked with the legislature to get this important legislation signed, sealed, and delivered.”

The legislation also established special institutes focused on civics. The Hamilton Center for Classical and Civic Education at the University of Florida will be created as a college-inside-a-college at UF. Florida State University’s Florida Institute of Politics is going to be reworked as the Florida Institute for Governance and Civics. The Adam Smith Center for Study of Economic Freedom was given new authority to hire faculty, develop curriculum, and raise money. At the University of Central Florida, they will set up the Institute of Risk Management and Insurance Education.

In the draft, the regulations define the forbidden DEI in detail:

A state university or state university direct-support organization advocates for DEI when it engages in a program, policy or activity that,   includes but is not limited to: (a) manipulating, or attempting to manipulate, the status of an individual or group to equalize or increase outcomes, participation or representation as compared to other individuals or groups; or (b) advancing the premise or position that a group or an individual’s action is inherently, unconsciously, or implicitly biased.

United Faculty of Florida, the union representing 25,000 faculty members and 8,000 graduate students at all 12 of Florida’s state colleges and universities, in addition to the 16 state-funded community colleges, opposed the anti-DEI legislation, Senate Bill 266. 

After it became law, UFF warned it would be a catastrophe:

In short, SB 266 is a crucial example of how Gov. DeSantis and his supporters in the legislature have decided that the state has the right to control and compel viewpoints in higher education classrooms across the state. UFF stands opposed to this fundamental attack upon the freedoms of all Floridians, and we call on all organizations—public and private, whether in education or otherwise—to stand with us.

In a textbook example of its lack of awareness, UFF complained SB 266 would: “Turn non-partisan colleges and programs—such as the Florida Institute of Politics—into partisan indoctrination factories that support only the state’s favored political viewpoint.”

Somehow, the professors missed that more than 20 states have passed or are working on bills directed against DEI and or the so-called Critical Race Theory because the left has turned schools into indoctrination factories.

Perhaps the professors' real problem is another provision of the law that ends lifetime tenure, now requiring all tenured educators to undergo a review every five years.