Protesters at the University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida on April 30, 2024. Credit: Photo by Dave Decker

Dr. William Felice was the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching’s 2006 Florida Professor of the Year. Seventeen years later, his name was on op-eds which explained that the coursework he taught would be illegal under Ron Desantis’ so-called “Stop WOKE Act,” a law that more or less makes it illegal to turn students’ eyes to examinations of structural racism that might invoke feelings of guilt.

“It is impossible to teach courses on human rights, hunger, and ethics without including a discussion of the consequences of structural and institutional racism,” he wrote.

For this installment of the Beach Drive Forums, Felice—a Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Eckerd College and author of six books on human rights and international relations—will discuss whether or not speech on campus really is “free.”

There’s no cover for the “Is Speech On Campus Free?” seminar By Dr. William Felice happening Wednesday, March 19 at St. Petersburg’s First Presbyterian Church.Readers are invited to submit their own events to Creative Loafing Tampa Bay’s things to do calendar.

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This article appears in Mar 6-12, 2025.