Share Your Experience

The Florida Institute on Academic Freedom invites observations from students, faculty, instructors, staff, graduate assistants, and other members of Florida's higher education community regarding academic freedom, discourse climate, self-censorship, and the influence of political or institutional pressures on academic life.

The Institute seeks to better understand how these dynamics affect classroom discussion, teaching, research, campus communication, and the broader educational environment. Individual observations help inform a larger research effort examining how academic freedom is experienced across Florida's colleges and universities.

Questions to Consider

Have you observed changes in how politically sensitive topics are framed, avoided, or discussed within your department or classroom?
Have you experienced or observed self-censorship related to teaching, research, course design, public engagement, or campus events?
How would you describe the current climate for academic freedom and open inquiry at your institution?
Have political, legislative, or institutional developments influenced how students, faculty, or staff communicate about controversial issues?

How to Submit

The Institute provides multiple options for sharing your observations, allowing you to choose the level of privacy and security that best fits your circumstances. All submissions are reviewed before potential publication and may be edited for clarity, formatting, or anonymization.

Encrypted Tip Line

For stronger privacy protections, submit through our encrypted tip line:

https://tips.hushline.app/to/flacademicfreedom

Submissions are end-to-end encrypted, no account is required, and you do not need to identify yourself. For additional privacy, consider accessing the tip line through the Tor Browser and avoid using university-issued devices or institutional networks.

Encrypted Email

You can reach us at:
thefloridainstituteonacademicfreedom@proton.me

Messages are stored using Proton Mail's encrypted infrastructure. Emails exchanged between Proton Mail accounts are fully end-to-end encrypted. If privacy is a concern, avoid sending messages from university or workplace email accounts, which may create institutional records.

Website Submission Form

The submission form below is appropriate for general observations and lower-risk reports. Like most websites, technical information such as IP addresses and timestamps may be retained by third-party service providers. For sensitive reports, we recommend using the anonymous tip line or encrypted email.

Follow-Up Contact (Optional)

Anonymous submissions are welcome through every submission method. If you would like the Institute to contact you for follow-up questions, you may optionally provide a Signal username, Proton Mail address, or another preferred contact method. Providing contact information is entirely voluntary.

Safety Reminder

If your submission involves sensitive information, consider avoiding university-issued devices, workplace devices, or institutional networks when contacting the Institute.

Privacy & Publication Standards

Please avoid including unnecessary identifying information about students, faculty, instructors, administrators, or staff members.

Submissions are reviewed before publication to protect participant privacy, maintain research integrity, and keep the focus on broader institutional patterns rather than personal disputes or accusations.

The Institute does not seek to encourage harassment, retaliation, or ideological targeting. Its purpose is to provide a structured, confidential, and research-oriented environment in which members of Florida's higher education community can document and better understand how academic freedom, discourse climate, and institutional pressures are experienced in practice.

Observation Archive

The Florida Institute on Academic Freedom publishes moderated and anonymized participant observations on a rolling basis from students, faculty, instructors, graduate assistants, and other members of Florida's higher education community. Published submissions address topics such as classroom discourse, academic freedom, institutional climate, political caution, self-censorship, topic avoidance, indirect framing, and other experiences related to academic communication.

Submissions are not published automatically. Each submission is reviewed to remove identifying information, ensure relevance to the Institute's research mission, and maintain a respectful, analytical, and non-accusatory tone.

The purpose of the Observation Archive is not to target individual professors, administrators, departments, or institutions. Rather, it serves as a structured research archive documenting how academic freedom, discourse climate, and institutional pressures are experienced across Florida's higher education system over time.

Submissions containing personal attacks, harassment, threats, unverifiable accusations against identifiable individuals, excessive identifying information, or material unrelated to the Institute's research mission may be edited, further anonymized, or declined for publication.

Individual submissions are treated as participant observations rather than independent verification of broader institutional claims. However, recurring themes, shared experiences, and patterns that emerge across institutions, disciplines, and participant roles may contribute to a broader understanding of how academic freedom and discourse climate are experienced throughout Florida's higher education system.

This archive will continue to expand as moderated submissions are received, reviewed, and published.