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Richardson said he asked for “further discussion, negotiation, or understanding of the background of the policy” but that he “did not receive that opportunity to have that discussion.” The language sent to Smith explaining the disapproval - that “outside activities that may pose a conflict of interest to the executive branch of the State of Florida create a conflict for the University of Florida” - was provided by the general counsel’s office, the dean said. And it comes amid persistent questions about how the campus thrust itself into the center of a fiery debate about the limits of academic freedom.
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His remarks suggest that the decision to bar professors from testifying against the state may have come from the top of UF. Richardson, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, handled Smith’s request, and on Monday, he shed new light about his involvement in the controversy at the fall meeting of the CLAS Assembly, a shared-governance group. News of the rejections provoked international outcry, and a week later the university reversed course.ĭavid E.
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Smith, Michael McDonald, and Sharon Wright Austin, all UF scholars, were each told in October that they would not be allowed to be expert witnesses in a voting-rights lawsuit against the state. The University of Florida dean who rejected a political scientist’s request to offer expert testimony because it may “pose a conflict of interest to the executive branch of the State of Florida” said this week that his decision was made at the direction of senior administrators.ĭaniel A.