Only 2% of Florida Students Participated in Mandated Freedom and Diversity Survey
The results look good but when you see that hardly anyone participated…you think twice.
A 2021 law required a survey taken at Florida’s 12 public universities to monitor freedom of speech and diversity.
Well, only 2% of the students and 10% of the employees who received the survey filled it out.
That’s 8,835 out of 368,000 students and 9,238 employees out of 98,000.
In the first ever “intellectual freedom and viewpoint diversity” survey taken at Florida’s 12 public universities, 61% of students agreed that their campuses provided an environment for free expression of ideas, opinions and beliefs.
Asked to share their political leanings, the 36% of employees who identified as moderates made up the largest single group. And a plurality of students — 45% — said they did not feel intimidated about sharing opinions in front of their professors, compared to 28% who said they did.
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About 25% of the students who participated agreed that professors or instructors use class time to “express their own social or political beliefs without objectively discussing opposing social or political beliefs,” but more than 50% disagreed with that statement.
Students were more split on whether they felt comfortable speaking up about controversial topics. About 44% said they were comfortable and 35% said they weren’t. Similarly, 41% agreed that their campuses did a good job of promoting differing viewpoints, while 27% disagreed.
In addition to the 36% of employees who identified as moderates, 21% said they were conservatives and 17% said they were liberal.
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Comments
I’d not have filled it out, either. If they call it anonymous, it isn’t.
No doubt there is a QR code somewhere on the page, invisible ink, or, one of those tiny-dot patterns printers can do to identify either the printer itself, or to turn an anonymous form into one that – in fact – isn’t.
At several places in my working career, we were given “anonymous” questionnaires and surveys to fill out. I either checked everything right down the middle (“neutral”, or “neither good or bad”, or, “average”, and never, EVER filled out a comment freehand, or, gave top scores to everything, no matter what it was.
At one place, we were told a survey would be confidential; no one could be identified from the forms. So, we all started handing our forms around the room to others, took theirs, then handed them on, and so on for about 30 seconds. I thought the boss would have kittens! LOL
“Anonymous!” Yeah, right, boss. Have any bridges in New York you wish to sell?
The survey was electronic, delivered by e-mail. That explains the low student participation; they don’t do e-mail. 😉
Very difficult for a mandatory survey to be anonymous.
There’s also irony in mandating a survey about free speech.
It was mandatory that universities and colleges distributed it, not that students and staff take it.
Either way, it’s still a huge sample compared to what anyone uses to predict elections. You’re luck to get 1,000 on any one of those “polls.”