English professor sues UF, saying it stripped him of classes after criticizing COVID policy
A tenured University of Florida professor has sued the university’s president and three other administrators, alleging UF violated his free speech rights when it stripped him of his teaching assignments and barred him from walking onto the campus last fall after he criticized the school’s decision to conduct classes in person amid surging COVID-19 cases in Florida.
Richard Burt, a UF professor of English since 2003, alleges UF President Kent Fuchs and other key administrators issued conflicting COVID-19 protocol guidelines at the start of the fall semester last August, according to the suit filed March 29 in U.S. District Court in Gainesville.
He maintains the state’s top public university abruptly reversed its policy of teaching remotely during the first three weeks of the fall semester after UF Board Chairman Morteza “Mori” Hosseini, a close ally of Gov. Ron DeSantis, mandated that all classes be taught in person, according to the suit.
At the time, DeSantis was fighting with the state’s school districts over mask mandates. And a UF Faculty Senate report released in December said UF employees were told “not to criticize the Governor of Florida or UF policies related to COVID-19 in media interactions.”
—Miami Herald
Two-thirds of US adults would be OK if their child came out as lesbian, gay or bisexual, but only 50% are fine with a trans kid
Nearly two-thirds of adults in the United States say they would be comfortable if their child came out as lesbian, gay or bisexual, according to a new survey, but only half would be comfortable with having a transgender or nonbinary child.
The poll released Thursday by The Trevor Project, a nonprofit group focused on suicide prevention and mental health for LGBTQ and questioning youth, analyzed overall knowledge, understanding and comfort regarding sexual orientation and gender identity among U.S. adults. More than 2,200 respondents answered questions on family acceptance, personal knowledge of LGBTQ people, as well as the usage of pronouns and LGBTQ identity terms, such as “queer,” “pansexual” and “nonbinary.”
The survey found that while two-thirds of adults reported personally knowing a person who identifies as gay (69%) or lesbian (65%), only 29% said they knew at least one transgender person.
That figure is even lower for nonbinary people, those whose gender identity or expression is neither male nor female. Fewer than one in five (17%) U.S. adults reported knowing at least one such person.
—New York Daily News
Chicago monument committee won’t recommend return of Christopher Columbus statues, sources say
CHICAGO — Late last month Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said she “fully expects” to return a controversial statue of Christopher Columbus to its former pedestal in Grant Park.
That was concerning news to members of the mayor’s committee reviewing Chicago monuments, emails obtained by the Chicago Tribune show.
University of Illinois at Chicago art history professor Lisa Lee sent an email to the committee and city officials on March 29, saying she “was surprised/astounded/perplexed/flummoxed/distraught by the Mayor’s comments about the Columbus statue ... and I am wondering if you might be able to give us an update about the status of the report or any other insights if possible?”
She was followed by Northwestern University art professor Michael Rakowitz, who said he wanted to be recused from the report because he wasn’t able to participate much but echoed Lee’s concerns.
“It’s great to know the draft report is ready. However, if the Mayor moves forward and reinstalls the Columbus statue, it seems to me that she is making that decision unilaterally, yet our names as a committee will inevitably be attached to that decision,” Rakowitz wrote.
—Chicago Tribune
EU approves Russian coal embargo as von der Leyen set for Kyiv visit
BRUSSELS — Representatives of the 27 EU states gave their backing on Thursday to a fifth round of sanctions targeting Russia, including an import ban on coal, wood and vodka.
European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, who had proposed the measures earlier this week, was set to show the bloc's solidarity with Ukraine when she travels to Kyiv on Friday and meets with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The latest sanctions came after evidence emerged that the Russian army committed a massacre of hundreds of civilians in Bucha, a small town outside the capital, sparking calls for war crimes probes.
Top EU officials have said a total fossil fuel import ban could eventually follow if Russia keeps up its assault.
Zelenskyy has long demanded that Europe stop the purchase of Russian oil and gas, saying the payments are funding Russian President Vladimir Putin's war machine. But major EU player Germany has said the economic consequences would be too costly for its own population.
—dpa
