“A Florida university confirmed Friday it will not employ next semester a former Florida State University professor who took a job there teaching after he was found guilty of sexual misconduct with students. It also said it was exploring how to overhaul its hiring practices to avoid similar issues in the future,” reports the Miami-Herald. “The University of West Florida in Pensacola said it had been unaware of the investigation at Florida State into Ross May, 38, when it hired him part time to teach two online classes after FSU had fired him. The university said in a statement it was reviewing how it examines the backgrounds of its instructors. ‘The safety and well-being of UWF students in the classroom and online is the highest priority for the university,’ spokeswoman Brittany Sherwood said.”
“May, the former associate director of FSU’s Family Institute, was among three FSU professors identified earlier this week who FSU had determined committed sexual misconduct in separate incidents with students. It fired May, suspended another who resigned a few months later and allowed a third to remain on the job. The most recent investigation concluded over the summer. FSU fired May over allegations he pressured a student to get drunk, hugged her ‘in a forceful way’ in a photograph and bet another student $50 he could have sex with her by the end of the semester. The incidents allegedly occurred during 2019, and the investigation was completed in May 2020.”
“UWF’s provost, George Ellenberg, said the university had been unaware of the FSU misconduct investigation and the university’s findings when it hired him. He also said the university was reviewing its hiring processes. For new hires, the university verifies employment and educational references and checks for criminal convictions, Sherwood said. It does not check to see whether applicants with previous college teaching experience have been the subject of Title IX investigations by their former employers.”
It is widely expected that Florida Republicans will be outraged by the University’s decision and insist that May is a victim of “woke” policies and that he is punished just for being a “regular guy”. There is no word yet on whether Matt Gaetz and Josh Hawley will be traveling to the University to insist that May’s firing is part of a “liberal woke mafia effort to feminize American men.”