UFF-FAU Intro: As part of your union’s organized opposition to political attacks on Florida’s public universities and colleges, UFF members are writing op-eds and letters to the editors of newspapers around the state and elsewhere. This op ed, which appeared in both the Tallahassee Democrat and the Palm Beach Post, explains the threat to Florida’s public universities in the Board of Governors’ proposed policy to effectively end tenure and thus academic freedom and due process
Matthew Lata
Palm Beach Post, Op-Ed
January 21, 2023
For five years, Florida’s higher education system has been declared the best in the nation by U.S. News & World Report, the most respected source of university rankings. Florida State University and the University of Florida are ranked among the top twenty public institutions. That success comes from a partnership and a balance between faculty, administrators and our elected leaders who work together to fulfill our responsibility to students, parents, and taxpayers.
The Florida Board of Governors will soon vote on a proposal that threatens to upset that balance. They cite a bill passed in the last legislative session that suggests (but does not require) a new five- year review of all tenured professors. On the surface, this doesn’t seem like a big deal. Faculty at state-supported institutions answer to the taxpayers and should demonstrate that they continue to earn the public trust. But the devil is in the details.
First, the review is redundant. All faculty are already evaluated yearly by students, peers, chairs, and deans. Faculty can be dismissed ‘for cause’, which includes not only misconduct but also failure to perform after being given warning. Tenure is awarded and confirmed after a years’ long vetting by faculty peers who understand their fields. It can also be removed. I am no more qualified to evaluate a physicist than is the governor, nor are members of the Board of Governors. Our current system works.
The proposal also states that the review shall consider ‘non-compliance with state law’. That seems logical. But what law? Bills passed in the last legislative session prohibit teaching or even mentioning certain controversial subjects. The criteria are ill-defined to the point where parts of the legislation have already been enjoined in court. The proposed BOG policy puts evaluations at the mercy of whomever is writing laws in any given year, putting politics above excellence.
Tenure exists because of actions like the mass firings of professors who dared teach evolution early in the last century. As with judicial appointments, it is intended to keep our academic institutions, like our courts, above politics. Opponents of tenure imply that it only protects wild-eyed liberal, unproductive faculty members who are enjoying jobs for life. The reality is that the vast majority of tenured faculty instruct, perform, research, and write. They are both liberal and conservative.
They teach science, technology ,mathematics, engineering, medicine, and law as well as liberal arts and humanities. The tenure system allows us to attract the best and brightest faculty who will commit to our institutions rather than selling their services to the highest bidder. Weakening tenure weakens our national reputation and our ability to recruit both faculty and students.
No tenured faculty member should fear evaluation. But that evaluation should be based on performance, student success, and service, not whether their teaching aligns with the governor’s politics.
Our colleges and universities should be a source of pride for Floridians. Their quality and rankings should not be jeopardized to support a political agenda. We urge the BOG to take a hard look at the ramifications of their proposal and either dismiss it or rewrite it in a way that inoculates it from the politics of the moment. That’s not only good policy—it’s good business.
We owe that to our students and to the taxpayers.
Matthew Lata is a professor of music at Florida State University and president of the United Faculty of Florida/FSU Chapter.