Gov. Ron DeSantis touted the University of Florida’s response to recent campus protests during a press conference Wednesday morning in Gainesville.
While standing in front of Library West, DeSantis said encampments set up in violation of UF policy lasted only a few minutes compared with campuses nationwide that are “being overrun.”
“You do not have a right to commandeer property, you don’t have a right to go take over parts of the university, you don’t have a right to go after other students based on their ethnicity,” DeSantis said.
The press conference comes after weeks of pro-Palestinian protests on campuses around the country, most notably at Columbia University, which canceled its main graduation ceremony.
Local law enforcement arrested nine protesters at UF on April 29. Some remaining students shouted “shame” and “who do you protect?” at officers and troopers, according to Fresh Take Florida reporting.
The next day, more than three dozen pro-Palestinian protesters stood on the corner of University Avenue and 13th Street with signs.
UF President Ben Sasse thanked law enforcement officers for keeping the peace on campus and being longsuffering as the protests stretched, enduring foul language and being spit at. Sasse said the goal of law enforcement was to get protesters into compliance with campus rules.
Sasse also reiterated students’ right to free speech and protest within the rules. He said when protesters cross the line, consequences will follow.
UF and Florida’s response to campus protesters has been discussed nationally, with Sasse appearing on CNN Sunday and writing an opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal.
“We have made sure that we’re very clear on what’s going to happen here at our college, and we’re going to continue to do it,” DeSantis said.
DeSantis also referenced Florida’s actions to attract students who have been impacted by protests elsewhere. In January, he signed an executive order that relaxes restrictions for students wanting to transfer to a Florida university.
The relaxed restrictions apply to students who demonstrate a “well-founded fear of persecution on the basis of religion.” DeSantis specifically mentioned Jewish students across the nation who have encountered these protests.
The executive order removes the foreign language competency component and eliminates the required number of credit hours for these transfer students. GPA rules still apply.
Sasse also addressed UF’s Jewish students and said the university is proud to be home to the largest Jewish student population. The Chabad UF Jewish Student and Community Center held its Passover Seder on April 22 in the Stephen C. O’Connell Center (the O’Dome) for the first time, with 1,200 in attendance.
Some protesters showed up at Monday’s press conference and chanted in the background behind barriers. One held a sign saying, “We will honor all of the martyrs.”
DeSantis took aim at some chants used at college campuses, including “from the river to the sea,” which he said signifies a second Holocaust.
DeSantis also touted other state actions since the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks and subsequent Israeli war in Gaza, including $25 million for security at Jewish day schools.
The upcoming state budget will include $569 million for K-12 safety, along with $20 million for safety at Florida’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).
“We believe in safe schools in K-12, and we believe in university campuses that are orderly and that people have an opportunity to learn and that you don’t have the campus overrun with agitators,” DeSantis said.
Unfortunately, many of the protests around the country are being backed by people that hate this country. Many are paid to be the agitators. Ask “Who started this mess?” We all know the answer.
When you mess with Israel you will find out they are like a nest of yellow jackets, they will attack
their enemy until they have been neutralized. No mealy mouthed politicians will tell them how to fight a war they did not start. There will be no cease fire until the enemy has been
eliminated and elimination will come quickly, fiercely with no warning.
The only path to winning a war is not needing to fight a war.
The only path to victory in a war you must fight is to vanquish your enemy.
Vanquishing an enemy is one path to avoiding a future need to fight a war.
DeSantis and Sasse completely miss the point. Where is the mention of the complicit nature of universities’ involvement in the incredible over-reach of by killing thousands of innocent civilians?
Of course protesters should not target individual Jewish civilians, because the issue has to do with the government of Israel and the universities which aid the government’s over-reach.
DeSantis and Sasse show no understanding of what a protest represents. One can only imagine how sad they would have been that “law enforcement officers” were not “keeping the peace on campus” during the Vietnam protests. They might get a history lesson about what happens when people have had enough.
The @peotesters” have not right to disrupt and interfere with the rights of the vast majority. DeSantis and Sasse understand this fundamental principle and acted to protect all our rights
A basic problem in America now is that many individual insist that their rights prevail over all the rest of us,
Golda Meir said, “You cannot negotiate peace with someone who has come to kill you”. That’s exactly what Hamas did to the Israelis in October. The hostages they kidnapped have still not been released. How can these students be “protesting” against the victims of Hamas in favor of their murderers?