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University of Florida Campus Shaken By Award Given to Openly Anti-Semitic, Racist Student [1]
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Date: 2025-06-26
Preston Damsky argued for the removal of voting rights protections for non-white citizens and orders to kill ‘criminal infiltrators at the border’
If I told you that a student who openly espouses anti-Semitic and racist views, won an award from University of Florida’s Levin College of Law for a legal paper that mounted a defense of white supremacist positions under the guise of free speech, would you believe it? In this political climate … of course you would!
As Randy Gould, editor of the “Oread ‘Not So’ Daily” newsletter recently pointed out, the bestowing of the award “is not an isolated incident. It is the logical outcome of decades of reactionary forces burrowing deep into American universities—particularly in Republican-controlled states like Florida, where Governor Ron DeSantis has launched an all-out assault on academic freedom, anti-racism, and any semblance of left-wing or liberatory politics.
“DeSantis’s political project isn’t just about ‘parental rights’ or curriculum fights,” Gould added, “it’s about building a pipeline from far-right ideology into institutional power. The result? A climate where racist ideas aren’t just tolerated but lauded.”
The New York Times reported that “The honor for an avowed white supremacist and antisemite has roiled the campus … in a state where a 2023 law prevents state funding for university programs that advocate for ‘diversity, equity and inclusion or promote or engage in political or social activism.’
“Preston Damsky, 29, received the ‘book award’ for a paper he wrote for a class last fall [in which] he argued for the removal of voting rights protections for non-white citizens and orders to kill ‘criminal infiltrators at the border,’” (
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/21/us/white-supremacist-university-of-florida-paper.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare).
Damsky was given the award by Federal Judge John L. Badalamenti, a Trump administration appointee who taught Damsky’s class (
https://www.law.ufl.edu/law/wp-content/uploads/v.-8-4-24-Fall-2024-SYLLABUS-ADVANCED-CONSTITUTIONAL-INTERPRETATION-SYLLABUS-Badalamenti-Grabowski.pdf).
Damsky acknowledged to the Times that referring to him as a Nazi “would not be manifestly wrong.” He later “opened an account on X in which he repeatedly posted antisemitic and white supremacist sentiments.”
In dozens of other posts Damsky made from February to April, he described Jewish people as “parasitizing the West,” described immigrants as “invaders” and advocated for a white ethnostate, according to University of Florida student paper The Independent Florida Alligator (
https://www.alligator.org/article/2025/04/uf-law-student-trespassed-from-campus-after-racist-antisemitic-social-media-posts).
The Independent Florida Alligator pointed out that “UF, home to the largest Jewish student population of any public university in the U.S., has since increased security around the law school with added police patrols, stricter event protocols and restricted building access.” According to Hilllel International, The University of Florida has about 6,500 Jewish students, or 19% of the student body.
According to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, “The law school’s interim dean, Merritt McAlister, initially defended Damsky’s accolade, invoking ‘institutional neutrality,’ arguing in an email to the law school community that professors must not engage in ‘viewpoint discrimination’ according to the Times.
McAlister’s argument underscores a growing tension within academia as the Trump administration escalates its campaign against DEI with policies that have seen Holocaust remembrance pages stripped from government websites but allowed far-right sentiments to go unchecked” (
https://www.jta.org/2025/06/23/united-states/florida-campus-roiled-after-antisemitic-student-wins-law-school-award-for-paper-defending-white-supremacy).
A class Carliss Chatman, a visiting law professor at the school during the spring semester, had proposed was originally titled “Race, Entrepreneurship and Inequality,” was renamed by the school’s administration to just “Entrepreneurship” before being added to the catalogue.
“I just find it fascinating that this student can write an article, a series of articles that are essentially manifestoes, and that’s free speech,” Chatman said. “But my class can’t be called ‘Race, Entrepreneurship and Inequality.’”
A statement by the University of Florida Hillel condemned Damsky’s rhetoric and said that they hoped the school’s administration would review the policy that allowed him to receive the award for his paper.
“There is no place at UF for this type of hateful rhetoric. We are grateful that the university responded by suspending the student, barring him from campus, increasing police presence around the law school, and initiating disciplinary proceedings aimed at expulsion,” the statement read.
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