Lawmaker Claims Credit for Antisemitism Review at Florida Universities

The chancellor of Florida’s state university system has launched a review of public university courses for “antisemitism or anti-Israeli bias” following controversy this summer over a textbook and quiz questions allegedly used at Florida International University.

It’s unclear whether that flap led Chancellor Ray Rodrigues, a former Republican state lawmaker and ally of governor Ron DeSantis, to call for the sweeping evaluation of curricula. The State University System of Florida did not provide an interview Thursday with Rodrigues or any other official, nor did it answer questions via email.

But Randy Fine, a Republican member of the Florida House, who is Jewish and who served alongside the chancellor and calls him a friend, said the statewide review “absolutely” came from an incident at Florida International University this summer. “When we learned that Florida universities were using a factually inaccurate, openly antisemitic textbook, we realized there was a problem that had to be addressed,” Fine told Inside Higher Ed Thursday.