The plaintiffs hope to keep politics out of tenure.
By Florence Fahringer
Original Air Date: August 16, 2024
Host: Three professors teaching at Florida universities sued the state legislature over what they say is overreach into the public higher education system. A Sarasota group and a New College teacher are playing key roles in that lawsuit, as Florence Fahringer reports.
Florence Fahringer: Three Florida professors from three different state universities — a law professor from the University of Florida, a literature professor from the University of South Florida, and a sociology professor from New College of Florida — have sued the state government over the state’s attempt to redefine tenure. NCF Freedom, an organization founded in the wake of Governor Ron DeSantis’ takeover of New College, is helping to fund the lawsuit. I talked with Jono Miller, president of NCF Freedom, to learn more about the second lawsuit funded by NCF Freedom. Full disclosure: Jono Miller is a programmer at WSLR.
Jono Miller: Well, we’re hoping to send a message to the Florida Legislature that they need to follow the Florida Constitution and stop dictating to the Board of Governors what is going to be taught or how it’s going to be taught in the state university systems.
FF: Miller and the plaintiffs believe that the state government is acting against its own constitution when it comes to interfering with the state university system.
JM: The state constitution, article nine, section seven B: the board and the board of governors shall operate, regulate, control, and be fully responsible for the management of the whole university system. So, that’s what we’re trying to get the legislature to understand.
Jono Miller
In 2010, there was actually an agreement reached between the Florida legislature and the Board of Governors that basically outlined just that; that affirmed that the legislature would be funding the system.
And I will say, just parenthetically, this is not unique. The legislature has a reputation for reaching into bodies that are supposed to be independent and then telling them what they’re supposed to be doing. So this is definitely not the first time this has happened.
FF: Besides sending a message, this lawsuit also serves a more specific purpose: to keep politics out of tenure.
JM: Well, yes, so this tenure issue, it’s sort of switching to this five year review system. But the most ominous part is that, regardless of what … let’s say you have a faculty member, he or she is coming up for review, and their peers will comment on their scholarship, their publications, their teaching, their service, and let’s say those are all positive, and let’s say even that they take that recommendation to the Board of Trustees, And the board of trustees says, yeah, this person’s okay. They should get another five year contract. But then the way this is written, it goes to the president, and the president apparently doesn’t have to follow anybody’s recommendation. If that person has crossed the president, angered the president, has political views that are different than the president, the president apparently can just eliminate them.
And so, that’s okay. Maybe that’s, you know, that’s one thing. The problem is there’s no appeal. The only way the faculty member could appeal that decision is to go to the very same president. There’s no higher body that they can take their complaints to. So the legislature, by doing this, has given this unilateral power to college university presidents. to decide the fate of faculty members, independent of what their peers or the trustees may think.
FF: Miller and NCF Freedom are predictably worried about what this could mean in the case of a university like New College.
NCF Freedom’s slogan: “It’s easy to be victorious, but tough to occupy.”
JM: And you know, what’s interesting is, you’ve probably seen the headlines now. Governor DeSantis is calling for an investigation of Ben Sasse at UF, his spending … So we’re seeing a lot of turnover in the present of the state university system, and we’re seeing situations where they have a lot of power.
And it’s particularly bad at New College. I mean, we had a trustees meeting yesterday, and with the exception of the student representative and the faculty representative, of all the other trustees, I think only one was asking questions about any of the agenda items. It’s sort of like, whatever is put on the plate before these trustees, they’re going to swallow it; you know, budget matters — there’s no discussion from these other trustees about how we’re spending the money. And that wasn’t true previously. I mean, I would go to the trustees meetings and people would bring up concerns and want explanations. And we’re having much more of a rubber stamp board of trustees at this point.
FF: When asked about the trajectory of the lawsuit — specifically, if a similar course to the previous lawsuit can be expected — Miller returned to the idea that ultimately, this case is about sending a message.
JM: We don’t know where this will end. If we get an unfavorable ruling initially, it can be appealed and that could go to the Florida Supreme Court. So we don’t know how far this will go, but this is a similar situation in that even if we don’t ultimately prevail, we are raising the state’s consciousness that the part of legislature is not supposed to be deciding what’s happening with the state university system. That is the purview of the Board of Governors.
FF: This is Florence Fahringer, reporting for WSLR News.
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