'Conservative wave' in Florida schools
Fox News correspondent Aishah Hasnie reports from Tampa, Florida where conservative candidates have victories across the board after Tuesday's primary elections on 'Special Report.'
The University of Miami has financially supported a group promoting Critical Race Theory, an organization that now has a 10 acre property in Florida. The group known as "Latina & Latino Critical Legal Theory Inc.," or "LatCrit" has been expanding in Florida.
According to Campus Reform, the organization "recently said the group need[s] to use its 10-acre forest property as a ‘haven’ because of hostility towards ‘critical knowledge’ in the state. Soon after the property was purchased, the University of Miami (UM) gave the leftist organization $80,000."
The University of Pittsburgh defined LatCrit Theory ideology as a "relatively recent genre of critical ‘outsider jurisprudence’ – a category of contemporary scholarship including critical legal studies, feminist legal theory, critical race theory, critical race feminism, Asian American legal scholarship and queer theory."
The term "outsider jurisprudence" has been defined by the University of Tennessee as the study of "the ways in which law is structured to promote the interests of white males and to exclude females and persons of color."
Professor Steven W. Bender, who co-authored "LatCrit: From Critical Legal Theory to Academic Activism" along with professor Francisco Valdes, recently spoke in a video conference hosted by UC Irvine Law. He can be seen in the recorded meeting saying, "We also have a Florida physical campus if you will, Campo Sano, and we need to explore the possibilities of Campo Sano as a critical physical haven in the state of Florida that's otherwise hostile, sort of the epitome of hostility to critical knowledge."
MIAMI, FLORIDA - OCTOBER 27: Aerial view of palm trees framing the city skyline on October 27, 2021 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
He also spoke about the concept of LatCrit ideology as "academic activism" for professors on campus, as well as how some teachings are "being questioned and even outlawed by critics in the uninformed general public."
LatCrit’s Campo Sano facility was described on the official website as a home base for activism that can defy "groups like the Federalist Society" and Florida’s attempts to quell CRT indoctrination.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has gained national fame for his frequent conflict with woke ideology on campuses. (Screenshot/First Coast News)
"To level the playing field and to give the LatCrit activists a fighting chance to be heard, they have purchased a small facility near Ocala, Florida to serve as the hub of their educational, research, advocacy and activism to remedy the imbalance and deficiencies in the current legal system," the website explained. "Having an independent physical base has become critical as universities and law schools increasingly are even less equipped to focus on legal problems of the poor and the ‘outsiders’ of society due to increasing budgetary, bureaucratic and political constraints."
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Campus Reform claimed that University of Miami tax filings for 2012 and 2013 "show two $40,000 donations to LatCrit. In subsequent years, LatCrit’s Facebook page posted pictures of an installed salt water pool, Valdes and others drinking, and a ‘Future Plans’ sketch including a ‘sleeping barn’ at Campo Sano."
Fox News Digital reached out to the University of Miami for comment, but did not hear back.
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