When you think about it, farming out the dirty work to the GPD, ASO or FHP is a terribly inefficient way to purge UF of undesirable international students.
I mean, GPD had to hang a driving with an expired license charge on Felipe Zapata Velásquez to facilitate his speedy transfer to ICE’s Krome concentra…um, I mean detention…camp and thereafter back to his home country of Columbia.
How many international students are going to get caught for that during a routine traffic stop?
Listen, GPD isn’t going to arrest a foreign student for straying too close to a campus protest. ASO won’t nab a “guest” student for publishing a pro-Gaza column in The Alligator. And FHP certainly won’t spring into action because some Venezuelan student was spotted wearing, oh I dunno, an FSU sweat shirt or displaying similar aberrant behavior.
So it’s very good news indeed that UF’s own cops are gonna undergo training so they can work hand-in-hand with ICE to speed up the classroom-to-deportation pipeline.
Presumably that training will include the time tested ICE tactic of donning dark hoodies and face masks in order to sneak up on a soon to be disappeared student.
And talk about efficiency. UF can run a daily shuttle from campus to Krome, thereby avoiding the expense of a night in the county jail. And the Harley-mounted campus cops who lead the football bus to the stadium on Saturday game days can provide Krome shuttle escort service – great Gator interstate publicity in this Free State Of Floriduh.
Nobody can say that UF isn’t jumping into the international student purge with both feet.
And not a moment too soon. As The Alligator reported, four UF students have just had their visas revoked as part of a sweeping Trump dragnet operation to “identify international students and deport them for taking part in protests against the war in Gaza.”
Meanwhile, here’s whats happening on other fronts in the GOP war on Florida higher education…
Hands off, GUV
Wow! Our Trumpian lawmakers really have gone to war with The Great DeSanitizer. A bill making its way through the Legislature would prohibit the Guv from hand-picking state university presidents. Which is really a shame because our anti-Ron still has lots of political cronies who need those top jobs in order to beef up their state pension benefits.
The good news: State university presidential ranks will presumably be, um, desanitized. The bad news: Trump is now likely to have more say in picking Floriduh university presidents than our anti-Ron.
Oh never mind
It was just last January that our Great DeSanitizer appointed Boise State professor Scott Yenor to chair the University of West Florida’s Board of Trustees. Yenor’s chief qualification appeared to be his insistence that “meddlesome” women ought to have babies instead of college degrees.
But now Yenor has abruptly resigned. Reports Inside Higher Education,
“it was ultimately pressure from state lawmakers…that seemed to push Yenor out. In a series of social media posts in February, Yenor seemed to imply that only straight white men should be in political leadership posts. Some critics, including Randy Fine, a Republican state senator at the time of the post, read his remarks as exclusionary of Jewish men.”
Wow! Floriduh kollege kampuses are positively strewn with political land mines these days.
Brand’s brand
British comedian Russell Brand is still scheduled to speak at New College of Florida. This despite being charged with rape and sexual assault back in London.
Explained a New College spokesperson, “we remain committed to creating spaces for honest and often challenging conversations. Free speech is not a performance — it’s a principle.”
The topic of Brand’s speech is part of a New College series that “seeks to advance civil discourse through open discussion on public policy issues.”
For a hint of what passes for a Brand’s brand of “civil discourse” check out this Guardian article headlined: “The nasty noughties: Russell Brand and the era of sadistic tabloid misogyny”
By all means, let the challenging conversations begin.
FreeGNV 