We are writing on behalf of the David R. Keller Chapter of the American Federation of Teachers and the American Association of University Professors to express the concerns of some faculty and staff at Utah Valley University regarding Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s upcoming visit to the UCCU Center for the Utah Republican Convention.
While we recognize that the event center is not managed entirely by UVU, we would also point out that the university’s logo and mascot are prominently displayed on UCCU’s website and that every news article reporting on this event has indicated that UVU is hosting it. Because we stand for the rights of students (especially those whose material realities are directly impacted), for academic freedom, and for higher and K-12 education as a public good, we oppose any association between our university and DeSantis’s ideas.
DeSantis’ views on higher and K-12 education are out of sync with UVU’s mission and values and run counter to the principle of academic freedom. In Florida, he has supported bills such as HB999, which would ban “any programs or campus activities” that “espouse diversity, equity, and inclusion or critical-race-theory rhetoric” and mandate a general-education course promoting “the values necessary to preserve the constitutional republic.”
Last year, the Florida Legislature adopted the “Stop WOKE Act,” which attempts to restrict what topics professors can address in their classrooms. More recently, DeSantis’s office demanded that Florida colleges and universities hand over information on activities, scholarly research and teaching related to DEI. These legislative moves pose a threat to the responsible education of students, the scholarly activities of faculty and the functioning of student-affairs programming not just in Florida, but in Utah as well.
A recent Deseret News poll found that almost half of Utah’s GOP county chairs would consider supporting DeSantis in the 2024 presidential primary.
UVU is committed to providing a safe and welcoming environment for every student, regardless of their background and faculty and staff have worked tirelessly to develop programs that promote diversity, equity, and inclusion on our campus.
DeSantis’s views are antithetical to the university’s mission and values. They threaten the very programs and initiatives that make UVU a welcoming and inclusive place for all students, including the Champions of Inclusion awards program, the Foundations of Inclusion workshop series, the EID Committee, the Campus Climate Committee, Multicultural Student Services, the LGBTQ Student Center, Lavender Graduation, the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration, the Center for Social Impact, the Global/Intercultural Initiative (including more than 75 courses offered by every college across campus), and many others.
These programs are essential to achieving the mission of “educat[ing] every student for success in work and life through excellence in engaged teaching, services, and scholarship” and fostering values of “exceptional care, exceptional accountability, and exceptional results.”
As UVU faculty and staff affiliated with the AFT and AAUP, we are dedicated to academic freedom and creating an inclusive and welcoming environment for all students. We recognize the governor’s right to free speech but are concerned that his visit gives the appearance that UVU endorses the threat he represents to higher education.
Given the discrepancies we’ve noted between his ideas and the university’s stated mission and values, we are taking DeSantis’s visit as an opportunity to clarify, publicly, our position on academic freedom and support of diversity, equity and inclusion at UVU.
Scott Abbott, Masood Amin, Lydia R. Kerr, Mark Lentz, Dianne McAdams-Jones and Rick McDonald are officers of The David R. Keller Chapter of the American Federation of Teachers and the American Association of University Professors at Utah Valley University.
