ORLANDO, Fla. — Lawmakers are weighing sweeping changes to Florida’s higher education system, including weakening tenure protections for faculty, putting a microscope on certain programs and specifying how United States history must be taught in core courses.
Allies of Gov. Ron DeSantis say the proposals would protect free speech on university campuses, while critics argue they would do the opposite.
“We will not attract the best faculty,” said Rich Templin, director of politics and public policy at Florida AFL-CIO, which represents 1.3 million workers in the state, including university faculty members. “We will not attract the best graduate students. We will be a laughing stock. We will plummet from being one of the highest-ranked systems in the country to one of the lowest.”
DeSantis put a sharp focus on higher education late last year when his office directed the Board of Governors and the Florida Department of Education to request data about Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs from the universities and state colleges.
Barely a week later, he appointed six new conservative members to the Board of Trustees at New College of Florida.
DeSantis has long derided “woke ideology” on university campuses, mocking “zombie studies” programs and saying tenure protects lazy professors.
Announcing the proposals in January, DeSantis said he sought to emphasize “the history and philosophy of Western Civilization” on university campuses, eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs, known as DEI, from college campuses and allow trustees to review faculty members at any time.
The House and Senate are each considering toned-down versions of DeSantis’ vision. Both bills passed their first committee stops in mid-March but haven’t progressed in recent weeks. Lawmakers are checking off DeSantis’ list of priorities, including a massive school voucher expansion, “at breakneck speed,” Templin noted.
The Senate’s version is slated to come before the Appropriations Committee on Education this week.
The current House version calls for sweeping changes to state universities, including prohibiting the use of state and federal funding on diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
Universities were ordered to submit data earlier this year about these programs, detailing $20.7 million in state funding that was directed toward courses, salaries and other expenses related to diversity, equity and inclusion.
DEI initiatives, which are generally intended to increase participation and promote opportunities for underrepresented groups on university campuses, cover a broad range of areas. They encompass a broad range of programs, including academic courses focusing on women writers and LGBTQ+ history; graduate studies on student-athlete graduation rates and racial attitudes in sports; and assistance for disadvantaged students.
DeSantis has denounced these programs as divisive and said they are scams that lead to political indoctrination.
The University of Central Florida recently reported spending nearly $2.3 million in state funding on DEI-related programs, including $146,225 to pay a director to oversee initiatives related to the campus’s Hispanic Serving Institution designation, which it received from the U.S. Department of Education in 2019. That designation, reserved for schools where more than a quarter of the students identify as Hispanic or Latino, allows UCF to compete for federal grants that are geared toward underserved students.
Some organizations, including the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, also include diversity-related criteria among their conditions for accreditation. UCF’s College of Medicine reported spending $372,750 in state funding to meet those requirements.
Last year, the school was selected for two, five-year U.S. Department of Education grants totaling $5.7 million that are intended to help UCF increase graduation rates for Hispanic and low-income students and increase the number of Hispanic students earning nursing degrees.
UCF spokesperson Chad Binette declined to comment about how the proposal might affect the school’s initiatives, but Antonio Flores, president and CEO of the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities, said he was worried about the future of higher education in Florida. His organization represents Hispanic Serving Institutions across the country, which provide opportunities for underserved students and workers for employers in their communities.
Like Templin, he said he feared the provisions included in the proposals could deter top faculty members and students from coming to Florida campuses.
“I hope that the people of Florida take a hard look at all of these developments and really go to their elected officials and require them to not go in the direction that they’re going because they’re going to harm, irreparably, the state of Florida,” Flores said.
The House proposal also calls for campuses to eliminate majors based on concepts like Critical Race Theory, a legal framework that examines how racism affects the country’s institutions that critics sometimes use as a broad catch-all term for what they view as troubling diversity and anti-racism programs.
The Senate’s version of the bill calls for much more modest changes. It would not halt state funding for diversity, equity and inclusion programs or target specific majors. It does say core education courses should not distort significant historical events, teach “identity politics” or define American history as contrary to the creation of a new nation based on principles outlined in the Declaration of Independence.
“There is nothing in this bill that prohibits anything from being taught,” said GOP Sen. Erin Grall, who sponsored the Senate version. “What this bill says is that all voices should be heard.”
But many academics say the proposal would instead stifle voices. Andrew Gothard, president of the United Faculty of Florida, which represents more than 25,000 faculty members across the state, countered that college students are adults and it’s up to them to decide how they feel about controversial topics.
Providing them with the opportunity to learn about a variety of subjects and perspectives, he said, is “a bedrock of democracy.”
“The government has no role in banning or censoring subject matter in higher education,” Gothard said.
Both versions also allow state universities to initiate a post-tenure review of faculty members at any time, which faculty members say they find worrisome because it could discourage academics from speaking candidly on controversial matters. The House’s version of the proposal would put each university’s Board of Trustees, most of whom are appointed by the governor or the Board of Governors, in charge of hiring faculty and reviewing their tenure.
“Every aspect of this bill is going to harm Florida’s higher education system,” Gothard said. “There’s no benefit.”
During the bill’s first hearing in the Senate Committee on Post Secondary Education, dozens of people spoke against the proposal or waived in opposition. Just one, a paid lobbyist, waived in support. The proposal passed along party lines, with the three Democrats on the committee voting against it.
While some of the speakers suggested faculty members feel they couldn’t speak against the proposal for fear of losing their jobs, Republicans on the panel countered that they think the proposal would protect the rights of faculty and students with unpopular views.
As a Black conservative, GOP Sen. Corey Simon said he often feels his perspective is unwelcome, and he wants to encourage free speech on college campuses.
“When you talk about all the professors who wouldn’t come up because they’re afraid of retribution — let’s turn that table a little bit,” Simon said. “Let’s talk about all the students who wouldn’t come and voice their opinion if they agree with this because their university campuses will look at them harshly and they will define them as ‘racist’ or other things and they just have a difference of opinion, a diversity of opinion.”
