Not Even One Percent Of Florida's Community College Students Filled Out “Intellectual Freedom” Survey

Florida Phoenix

- August 30, 2022

Florida community college students in droves ditched filling out an “intellectual freedom and viewpoint diversity” survey designed to express beliefs and viewpoints on campuses, with some minor exceptions.

The Florida Department of Education reported only 7,213 students who responded — 0.5 percent out of 1,361,521 community college students who received the survey during the spring semester.

That response rate is even lower than the already-paltry response from state university students, the Phoenix previously reported.

The results of the survey were sent to the Phoenix over email by Cassie Palelis, the press secretary for the Florida Department of Education, through a link which leads to a page on the department’s website.

It’s not clear how the average Floridian would find the results through using the website without having the link.

The intellectual freedom and viewpoint diversity survey is a result of legislation passed during the 2021 legislative session, with the goal of selecting “an objective, nonpartisan, and statistically valid survey to be used by each institution which considers the extent to which competing ideas and perspectives are presented and members of the college community, including students, faculty, and staff, feel free to express their beliefs and viewpoints on campus and in the classroom.”

Critics say the surveys have no trust and no statistical validity, and they’ve been criticized over potential security risks.

The DOE’s results for college students show that South Florida State College, which has multiple campuses in south central Florida, had the highest response rate among students, with about 4.5 percent of 3,107 students filling out the survey.

But only three students from Gulf Coast State College, in Panama City in the Panhandle, responded to the survey.

The Florida Phoenix, a nonprofit news site that’s free of advertising and free to readers, covers state government and politics through a mix of in-depth stories, briefs, and social media updates on the latest events, editorial cartoons, and progressive commentary. The Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a national 501(c)(3) nonprofit supported by grants and a coalition of donors and readers.