Fla. universities seek to drop ban on travel to Cuba
The panel that oversees Florida's public university system has asked a
federal judge to overturn part of a 2006 state law that bans
universities from spending money to travel to Cuba and four other
nations on the U.S. terrorist list.
Posted on Wed, Jan. 02, 2008
BY GARY FINEOUT
gfineout@MiamiHerald.com
TALLAHASSEE --
In another sign of its growing independence, the panel that runs
Florida's university system has told a federal judge to throw out part
of a state law that bans colleges from spending money to send professors
to Cuba and other ''state sponsors'' of terrorism.
The move by Florida's Board of Governors aligns the appointed board
closer with the ACLU, which last year filed a lawsuit on behalf of a
group of university professors and the Florida International University
faculty senate challenging the ban.
In its filing in U.S. federal court last month, lawyers for the Board of
Governors contend that while state lawmakers can tell universities how
to spend state taxpayer money, the Legislature does not have the
authority to order universities on how they can spend private donations
or federal research grants.
''Where nonstate funds are concerned, the travel act's prohibition runs
afoul of the academic freedom accorded to universities under the First
Amendment,'' the board states.
The panel maintains that Florida's Constitution gives the Board of
Governors, which was created by voters in 2002, autonomy over university
research and educational activities. That is the same argument that the
board is using in a separate lawsuit challenging the Legislature's
authority to control university tuition rates.
''Clearly our board has a more refined and independent interpretation of
its role derived from the constitution and our current filing reflects
that,'' said State University System Chancellor Mark Rosenberg on Friday.
ACLU officials welcomed the new stance by the university system.
''The state has no business intruding into the academic life of our
state's colleges and universities by attempting to impose restrictions
on grants for academic research that come from either the federal
government or private foundations,'' said Howard Simon, executive
director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida. ``We are
pleased that the Board of Governors agrees with the ACLU's position.''
The move to challenge the travel ban was criticized by Rep. David
Rivera, the Miami Republican who authored the 2006 law in response to
the indictments of former FIU professor Carlos Alvarez and his wife,
Elsa Alvarez, on charges of being unregistered agents for Cuban leader
Fidel Castro's communist government. They later pleaded guilty to lesser
charges.
''I don't believe Florida residents want their taxpayer dollars or
resources being used to promote travel to terrorist nations,'' said
Rivera. ``It's unfortunate that the Board of Governors would join with
the ACLU in fighting against the Florida Legislature and, in doing so,
attempt to facilitate taxpayer resources going to terrorist nations.''
The law passed unanimously by Florida lawmakers bans community colleges
and universities from using any state money, or ''nonstate'' money made
available to colleges, to ''implement, organize or administer or to
support'' activities related to, or travel to Cuba, Iran, Syria, North
Korea and Sudan.
Rivera said he included ''nonstate'' money in the law because he did not
believe that private donations or federal grants would be segregated
from state dollars.
''The professor is going to be using his desk, his phone, his computer
to execute that travel,'' said Rivera.
The ACLU filed its lawsuit against the ban in October 2006. A federal
judge earlier this year rejected a request by ACLU lawyers to block
enforcement of the new law while the lawsuit was pending.
This past September the Board of Governors hired Holland & Knight to
handle the lawsuit, replacing the state lawyers under Attorney General
Bill McCollum who had been representing the university system.
McCollum's office is still involved in the lawsuit, however, and this
month asked a judge to uphold the entire law.
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