Florida Officials Against Funding, Agenda : Cuban Exile ‘Think Tank’ Plan Opposed

Plans to create a state-subsidized Cuban exile “think tank” have run into strong opposition from Florida officials who fear that it would use taxpayer dollars to push its right-wing political agenda.

Charles Reed, chancellor of the state university system, has called the center, to be controlled by a powerful anti-communist lobbying group, “an assault on academic freedom.” He has vowed to fight establishment of the proposed Cuban studies institute at Florida International University in Miami.

A number of FIU professors consider the project a serious threat to the university’s integrity because it would be run by and for the Cuban American National Foundation, a Cuban exile lobby that has gained significant clout in Washington in its fight against Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

“This is a case of an anti-Castro group with its own ax to grind trying to impose its politics on the public university setting. It has no place here,” said Mark Rosenberg, head of FIU’s Latin American and Caribbean Center.

By using public funds for a privately run program, the Cuban studies institute would violate U.S. academic tradition in which research centers that operate independently at public universities are required to be funded by private endowments.

A number of university-based think tanks, such as the conservative Hoover Institution at Stanford University, promote clear ideological viewpoints but they operate without the support of tax dollars.

The controversial proposal received a big boost Thursday when the Florida House voted overwhelmingly in favor of providing $1 million to create the research center.

But the proposed institute’s fate now depends on talks between negotiators from the House and the state Senate, where liberal legislators are gearing up to fight the measure.