University of Florida President and ex-Sen. Ben Sasse on Sunday implored colleges to take his school’s lead and stake out a balance between free speech and order as anti-Israel protests take campuses by storm.
Sasse, 52, the former Republican senator from Nebraska, explained that as the head of the University of Florida, he has drawn the line between free speech and action.
“I’m a First Amendment zealot,” Sasse told CNN’s State of the Union.” “We will always defend your right to free speech and free assembly. And also, we have time, place, and manner restrictions.
“You don’t get to take over the whole university. People don’t get to spit at cops, you don’t get to barricade yourselves in buildings. You don’t get to disrupt somebody else’s commencement.”
When protesters chafe against the institution’s rules, the University of Florida tries to “help them get into compliance with the rules,” Sasse said, while noting his school’s “goal is not to arrest people.”
But when students cross the line, the university takes action.
“We just don’t negotiate with people who scream the loudest. It just doesn’t make any sense to me,” he said.
The University of Florida has roughly 6,500 Jewish undergraduate students, which is about 19% — the largest percentage of any institution in the country, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
“I want everybody to feel safe here because I want everybody to be safe here. And I think right now everybody’s safe,” Sasse said.
Sasse stepped down from the Senate in early 2023. He was one of seven Republicans in the upper chamber who voted to convict former President Donald Trump during his second impeachment trial after the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
Sasse also previously assailed Trump for his temperament, spending and coziness with dictators.
But when asked for his thoughts on the 2024 presidential cycle, Sasse demurred Sunday.
“I’ve made a pledge, and I keep my word. I don’t talk about politics for 36 months,” the senator explained, after the Wall Street Journel reported in January that he said he had “signed a 36-month pledge of partisan neutrality.”
