Send us your woke, your trans — Florida’s youth yearning to breathe free | Opinion
When Florida’s governor and legislators started targeting LBGTQ rights and discussions of race, diversity and inclusivity on campuses during the past year, universities in other parts of the country, saw enormous new opportunities for aggressive student recruitment.
And as these politicians are now proposing making compliance with their “Stop WOKE” law part of the tenure-decision process, overturning almost a hundred years of tradition during which American higher education became the envy of the world, we believe Florida faculty will also become increasing poachable.
At places like Binghamton University, State University of New York, a strong commitment to academic freedom is essential for a fully functioning democracy and cutting-edge research; and that a pedagogy that embraces different perspectives results in students who are more resilient and better prepared for the careers that await them. Numerous studies have shown that diversity of thought and backgrounds leads to innovative research and to business success. A diverse environment and mindset are what best prepares students and researchers for the challenges our society faces.
We at Binghamton enthusiastically support students and professors in all of their diversity: Christian, Jewish, Muslim, non-believers, those on the political right and left, those who want to choose their pronouns to reflect their lived identities and those who want to study and discuss the horrific history of racial oppression and violence against non-whites. To be blunt: those students, teachers and researchers whom some in Florida would like to silence or expel are very welcome here.
Already at Binghamton, we are planning aggressive undergraduate recruitment strategies starting this spring and summer to let parents and their university-bound children in Florida know that all students are welcome on our campus and will be supported whatever their gender expression, sexuality, race or set of political beliefs might be.
Similarly, we see extraordinary opportunities for recruiting faculty who feel threatened by Florida state policies and the climate of campus suspicion and intolerance that Gov. DeSantis is promoting. While the long-standing stereotype is that of grim-faced New Yorkers fleeing snowy winters and high state taxes for balmy weather and no state income tax in the Sunshine State, the truth is that DeSantis may be setting up a great reverse migration of intellectuals, innovative thinkers and creative talent coming back home (and sending their children back) to a place that embodies tolerance, love for diversity in all of its manifestations and a deep commitment to the protection of iconoclastic, world-changing ideas, one that requires a strong tenure system.
Almost 20% of Florida’s population is under 18 — that is over 4 million pre-college youth who more than make up for New York’s own declining population of college-age students. We need them and want them as applicants to Binghamton. We are also dramatically building our national research profile and would welcome applications from Florida’s star faculty who are tired of tenure-tampering politicians. Join our Nobel Prize winner Stanley Whittingham and know that no one will question the legitimacy of climate-change research or of the intellectual forays into structural racism that are part of the research agendas of faculty throughout our humanities, social sciences and arts departments.
Yes, we may have snow instead of sand on the ground for four months of the year, but beach weather can be far chillier than New York winters for those who do not fit into the right-wing agenda of Florida politicians.
Again, we welcome conservative Christian students as much as we do Jewish, Muslim and non-believing students. We think everyone thrives in an environment where no one feels censored or denied the right to express their beliefs and senses of selfhood. Silencing those who are different from us is antithetical to the learning process, just as denying history is disastrous when one wants to celebrate and perfect this extraordinary American democracy that seems so fragile at times.
No one wants a politically bifurcated country, and few have rallied to Georgia Republican U.S. Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene recent call for a “national divorce.” But if some politicians, such as DeSantis and his political allies, want to make smart people, tolerant people, gay and trans people, and their children feel unwelcome and under threat, then by all means let’s talk about where they can thrive.
Snow or no snow, ours is a much warmer environment.
Donald E. Hall is provost and executive vice president of Binghamton University.
