A tenured University of Florida professor has sued the university’s president and three other administrators, alleging UF violated his free speech rights when it stripped him of his teaching assignments and barred him from walking onto the campus last fall after he criticized the school’s decision to conduct classes in person amid surging COVID-19 cases in Florida.
Richard Burt, a UF professor of English since 2003, alleges UF President Kent Fuchs and other key administrators issued conflicting COVID-19 protocol guidelines at the start of the fall semester last August, according to the suit filed March 29 in U.S. District Court in Gainesville.
He maintains the state’s top public university abruptly reversed its policy of teaching remotely during the first three weeks of the fall semester after UF Board Chairman Morteza “Mori” Hosseini, a close ally of Gov. Ron DeSantis, mandated that all classes be taught in person, according to the suit.
