Legal Insurrection Florida ‘Campus Free Speech Tour’ postponed, as universities restrict events

Legal Insurrection Florida ‘Campus Free Speech Tour’ postponed, as universities restrict events

Bummer. Our Legal Insurrection Florida tour has to be postponed.

I was scheduled to give lectures on campus free speech on March 24-25-26 at Florida Atantic U., U. Florida, and Florida State. We were going to hold a reader event prior to the March 24 event in Boca Raton.

But the handwriting has been on the wall and growing: an increasing number of campuses are clamping down on large events and campuses increasingly are moving classes to remote access.

That’s what Cornell just announced late this afternoon:

… While there are currently no confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Tompkins County, we must do all we can to minimize future community spread.

Most significantly, we will move to virtual instruction. We are asking faculty to begin that transition now so that after spring break all instruction – for the rest of the semester – will be online. We will be asking all undergraduate students and many professional degree students to leave campus at the start of spring break and to remain at their permanent home residence, completing their semesters remotely. (When essential, we will honor requests for exemptions.) …

We are tightening our policies for group events to prohibit all nonessential events of more than 100 people, on and off campus, even when they include only members of the Cornell community. This excludes classroom teaching through March 27. Additionally, we are strongly discouraging university-sponsored events that bring outside guests to campus; these should occur only with guidance from college leadership.

In other words, go on spring break, and don’t come back until we say it’s all clear. Some colleges and universities aren’t waiting for spring break, they’re sending students home almost immediately.

We received initial indications that this might happen with one or more of the Florida campuses at which I was to lecture.

Now UF is informing professors to take classes online. TV20 has obtained an email sent by the provost to professors at UF encouraging them to start preparing classes to go online for the rest of the semester and some professors at UF tell TV20 they have already transitioned into classes online.

Florida State set in motion a possible switchover for as early as March 23:

Florida State University Provost Sally McRorie today directed the university’s faculty and academic instructors to be ready to shift their courses from traditional campus-based, face-to-face classes to online and other alternate methods of delivery for the remainder of the semester following spring break, if it becomes necessary.

Considering that we had to fly multiple people to multiple locations, and secure a venue for a possible reader reception, it all just seemed very likely not to happen for reasons beyond our control. So we are going to postpone the Florida Tour without waiting for the last shoe to drop.

As of now, Samantha’s appearance at Northeastern University Wednesday night is still on, but N.U. just announced event restrictions, so we’ll see if it happens. If you plan on going, I suggest you check the event page and our event post for updates.

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