Professors union report says Florida higher ed policies must be fought 'tooth and nail'

A prominent union for professors has released a scathing report warning that Gov. Ron DeSantis’ higher education policies represent an attack on academia and democracy that could spread nationwide.

“The survival of the institution of higher education free from political interference and the ideological agenda of autocrats — a cornerstone of democratic societies — hangs in the balance,” wrote a special committee put together by the American Association of University Professors.

The panel interviewed more than 65 people currently or previously in Florida’s higher education environment, from professors to students to former presidents. In its faculty interviews, the committee said there were two prevalent sentiments: that the state has become “Orwellian,” meaning threatening to a free and open society, and a “canary in a coal mine,” portending disaster.

“We call on all professional organizations, unions, faculty, students, staff, administrators, and communities across the country to fight such ‘reforms’ tooth and nail and to offer support to colleagues and unions in Florida and beyond, however they can,” wrote the committee in its report, released Wednesday.

The special committee said it reached out to State University System of Florida Chancellor Ray Rodrigues, too.

Rodrigues responded: “Since the president of AAUP has consistently concluded political interference exists in Florida’s higher education system, it is difficult to accept that the AAUP’s special committee will fairly and fully consider any testimony to the contrary.”

Report highlights New College of Florida takeover

The first higher education change the committee dives into in its report is DeSantis' conservative takeover of the New College of Florida. The situation, the committee said, provides a “sense of what the DeSantis-led assault on higher education hopes to achieve.”

Earlier this year, the governor appointed a new majority to its Board of Trustees tasked with shaping the small, public liberal arts school into one like Hillsdale College, a private, conservative Christian school in Michigan.

The college has seen an all-you-can-eat buffet’s worth of controversy since then, its leadership giving high-level jobs to Republican insiders, terminating the gender studies program and denying tenure to five professors. Moreover, New College fired an LGBTQ librarian who had been critical of the takeover and declined to renew the contract of a visiting history professor who also spoke out.

"The unprecedented takeover of New College of Florida and the imposition at that institution of an aggressively ideological and politically motivated agenda ... stands as one of the most egregious and extensive violations of AAUP principles and standards at a single institution in recent memory,” the committee wrote.

But there's also the policies passed by DeSantis and the Republican-dominated Legislature.

In 2021 came HB 233, which Republicans said was aimed at preventing conservatives on campuses from feeling they had to self-censor. The AAUP committee said it was more to "chill academic freedom.”

The law requires an annual “intellectual freedom and viewpoint diversity” survey and prohibits schools from shielding students and staff from speech they may find offensive. It also allows students to record classroom instruction, for reasons including for evidence complaints and lawsuits.

The next year's SB 7044 authorizes the Florida Board of Governors to develop policies for tenured professors to undergo a “comprehensive” review every five years. It also changes higher education accreditation policies, coming as DeSantis feuds with accreditation groups that he said "threaten" the status of state universities without oversight.

AAUP president Irene Mulvey has said accreditation has been targeted by Republicans because they’re a “barrier to their attempts to inject partisan politics into higher education.”

The “STOP Woke Act” also became law in 2022, though its restriction on discussion of race, gender and other topics in university classrooms is currently blocked in court.

And this year came SB 266, which created a funding ban on state college and university diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

“Underlying [the law] is an ideological and political offensive that has the potential to be even more punitive, if left unchecked,” the committee wrote.

It also accused the state of waging an “assault” on LGBTQ rights. The committee in part points to HB 1521, which criminalizes using a public bathroom that doesn’t correspond with one’s sex assigned at birth. The Florida Board of Governors has approved disciplinary procedures if that happens.

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Committee says there’s been a ‘human toll’

The committee said the policies and environment in Florida have had a ‘human toll.’

“Everyone with whom the committee spoke reported the same thing: faculty are leaving Florida, and they are doing so because the conditions of their employment are becoming insufferable and they can no longer do their jobs,” it wrote.

During a summer survey by AAUP and state faculty groups, almost 300 of the responding 642 Florida faculty members said they would seek employment outside the state over the following year.

"There is a tremendous sense of dread right now, not just among faculty; it’s tangible among students and staff as well," said LeRoy Pernell, a Florida A&M University professor who once served as its law school's dean, in an interview with the committee.

Hope Wilson, a former University of North Florida education professor who left the state, recently told the New York Times that, “Florida isn’t a state where I can raise my family or do my job.” She served as an adviser to the school’s Pride club and worked with its LGBTQ center.

Separate survey points to lower morale

A group of professors recently published articles on the perceived impacts of HB 233, the 2021 law.

They surveyed 187 state academics in 2022. A majority of them believed the law would have “would have negative effects on viewpoint diversity, teaching, and learning,” the researchers wrote in a published, peer-reviewed paper.

A majority also said it was having a negative effect on morale.

“Many participants perceived HB 233 targeted academics with more liberal political ideologies, and thus felt this law promoted censorship rather than intellectual freedom,” the paper continued.

Participants who said they liked the legislation, according to the researchers, had a “more conservative political ideology.”

Allan Barsky, a Florida Atlantic University professor and one of the researchers, said it would be more difficult to do the same research they did in 2022.

A lot has changed in Florida since then: There’s been a lot more laws.

“If we were to survey faculty now, you’d have to look at the impact of various pieces of legislation, and it’d be harder to tease out,” Barsky said.

This reporting content is supported by a partnership with Freedom Forum and Journalism Funding Partners. USA Today Network-Florida First Amendment reporter Douglas Soule is based in Tallahassee, Fla. He can be reached at DSoule@gannett.com. On X: @DouglasSoule.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Professors' union releases report on concerns over DeSantis policies