Partisan reshaping of Florida’s 28 public colleges and 12 state universities has been raising alarms throughout the state. Four years of coordinated legislation meant to limit critical thinking, free expression and exchange of ideas — all under the guise of intellectual freedom, viewpoint diversity and civil discourse — has done serious damage.
HB 233 (2021) allowed students to record classes without faculty knowledge; prohibited “shielding” students from ideas they may find objectionable; and launched the annual Intellectual Freedom and Viewpoint Diversity Survey. Research suggests this had a “chilling” effect on teaching and learning by stifling discourse and instilling fear and mistrust.
Dr. Stacy Frazier is a professor of applied social and cultural psychology at Florida International University.
SB 520 (2022) exempted college president searches from sunshine laws, empowering boards of trustees to hire politicians rather than scholars to lead institutions. Now, half of all university presidents, and 17 new board appointees, are former lawmakers, lobbyists or others connected to Gov. Ron DeSantis or the Republican Party, few trained to teach or lead a university.
SB 7044 (2022) prohibited universities from seeking re-accreditation from the same agency in consecutive cycles. Since then, Florida has led several southern state university systems to create a new agency meant to replace the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission. Florida will give $4 million to the Commission for Public Higher Education and help select its board members, upending the independent accrediting process meant to ensure adherence to national standards.
SB 256 (2023) weakened public sector unions by requiring 60% membership and eliminating payroll deduction. At public colleges and universities across the state, 24 bargaining units representing more than 13,000 staff and adjunct faculty have been decertified. Meanwhile, faculty and graduate student union chapters are fighting to preserve their right to collectively bargain for working conditions that protect academic freedom, which is foundational to higher education, critical for democracy, and directly threatened by SB 266 (passed concurrently, see below).
SB 266 (2023) empowered the Board of Governors, which oversees the state university system, to revise academic programs without faculty input; require a post-tenure review every five years (possible dismissal without due process and disregarding annual evaluations); prohibit use of state or federal resources for diversity, equity and inclusion programming; and create or elevate ideologically conservative centers for research and teaching. Since then, at least 1,200 general education courses — including popular classes in sociology and anthropology that discuss race, gender and inequality — have been removed from the core curriculum, reflecting a 57% reduction in offerings. Offices to support women, Black, Hispanic and LGBTQ students and faculty have closed while centers promoting conservative values have received more than $50 million dollars in state funding.
Katie Rainwater is a visiting teaching professor of sociology at Florida International University. (courtesy, Katie Rainwater)
Taken together, this legislative interference is putting Florida graduates at a competitive disadvantage compared to peers in other states and diminishing students’ preparation to engage in our democracy.
Florida is losing top scholars. Faculty resignations have risen at public institutions, particularly among tenure-track faculty impacted by post-tenure review. Some are retiring early, and others are leaving Florida due to disruptions of political interference to their research and teaching. Although legislators said a key objective of post-tenure review was to recognize exceptional work, highly productive faculty have been most likely to leave.
This brain drain requires faculty and administrators to spend disproportionate time recruiting new colleagues, which is challenging given the low morale and hostile climate. Administrator and faculty time spent recruiting to fill vacated positions competes with time for research and teaching. A recent faculty survey in Southern states found that 90% of Florida faculty reported difficulties attracting new talent, the highest rate among any state surveyed.
Course removals, particularly from the humanities and social sciences, reduce student exposure to social inequities and in turn, the knowledge and marketable skills — like critical thinking and communication — to solve them through careers and civic engagement.
Unrelenting partisan attacks are dismantling decades of investment in Florida’s colleges and universities as engines of free inquiry and opportunity. We urge students, parents and alumni to call your legislators and demand they recommit to high quality higher education for all Floridians.
Stacy Frazier is a professor of psychology, and Katie Rainwater is a visiting teaching professor of sociology, at Miami’s Florida International University. The opinions expressed are the authors’ own and not the university’s.
