UF College of Law Dean Laura A. Rosenbury is quite proud of her law school's 2019 U.S. News and World Report ranking of 31st nationwide, yet it is quite perplexing why she so often includes UF Law Professor Kenneth Nunn in so many of her promotional videos for the law school since it is well-known within the UF law school community that Professor Nunn on campus and during his official hours as a law professor shoved a law student full force with both hands saying among other things, "I’m a law professor and deserve respect." Professor Nunn was suspended by the law school with pay for a week, March 7-14, 2011, for this incident which just so happened to coincide with UF's Spring Break that year, so rather than being arrested as he probably would have advocated for someone else (his views on the Trayvon Martin case are well-known), the professor, who teaches criminal law and is a well-known activist for criminal and racial justice (see his Twitter account @professornunn), received no meaningful penalty whatsoever. 

 

This December 2010 incident was reported by the Gainesville Sun on April 18, 2011 and by the American Bar Association on April 21, 2011 and occurred prior to Dean Rosenbury's arrival at UF, yet why does Professor Nunn seem to be so much a part of UF College of Law's current establishment? Anyways Professor Nunn's student shoving incident explains the "Thug".

 

The "Doofus" portion of his nickname was inspired by the Florida law community, the Florida criminal law community in fact, as evidenced by the 12th Judicial Circuit's challenging the always confident, provocative and seemingly knowledgeable Professor Kenneth Nunn, who for years has taught criminal law at UF, to substantiate his criminal sentencing views. In a very rare move, a sitting chief justice wrote a Florida Bar News Letter-to-the-Editor that got published on June 15, 2017 as "Bias On The Bench?". Here is an excerpt directly challenging Professor Nunn to substantiate his views (not pontificate to 1Ls in his classroom) on the very relevant matter of criminal pleas, 

"According to one of the reporters’ sources, University of Florida Law Professor Kenneth Nunn, only 10 percent of all pleas involve a “fixed sentence.” Because we know from practical experience, and all credible literature on the subject, that the opposite is essentially true, we contacted Prof. Nunn and asked him to substantiate that claim. Nunn acknowledged speaking with a reporter, but could “not recall giving a precise figure for what you call ‘fixed pleas.’” Though he perplexingly continued to suggest that “fixed pleas” account for a relatively small number of cases, he offered no basis or legal authority for that proposition.

As explained in our response, a court’s ability to control what occurs during the plea process is limited. ..."

The occasion for the 12th Judicial Circuit's email exchange with Professor Nunn and subsequent Florida Bar News Letter to the Editor was a series of articles titled "Bias On The Bench" which was published by the Sarasota Herald Tribune. This 2016-2018 investigative series created quite a stir in the legal community statewide and can be reviewed on the Sarasota Herald Tribune's website. Regarding the 12th Judicial Circuit's general and very substantive response, see their website's Final Response to "Bias On The Bench" and specifically under Supplemental Documentation their "Exhibit 13 - E-mail from Professor Kenneth Nunn to Trial Court Administrator Walt Smith" and the HTML button "Response From The Public" at the very bottom of the webpage.

 

The University of Florida's Bob Graham Center also hosted an event on this topic, see "Bias On The Bench - Monday, April 03, 2017 - 06:00 pm" .