UF advocates join FAMUans in speaking out against Scott’s political interference

Many University of Florida (UF) supporters simply shrugged and went on with their business when FAMUans rang the alarm over Gov. Rick Scott’s efforts to micromanage Florida’s only public historically black university. But now, UF advocates are starting to realize that FAMU was only the beginning. UF is next on Scott’s list.

UF is currently in one of the most vulnerable positions in its nearly 160 year history. Since 2006, the university has lost nearly a third of its state funding. The institution has responded by laying off many faculty members, especially within its College of Liberal Arts.

UF’s ability to use tuition increases to make up the reductions has been severely limited. Back in February, Scott vetoed a bill that would have permitted UF to raise its tuition differential above the 15 percent cap.

Now President Bernie Machen has announced his retirement. He will leave office once his contract expires on Dec. 31, 2013 and serve as a full-time member of the dentistry faculty.

There are complaints that Scott has been trying to increase his influence over UF’s internal affairs as the institution heads into its presidential search process.

Machen chose to only ask the Board of Governors (BOG) for a nine percent tuition differential increase after Scott publicly berated him for his support of the tuition hike bill. BOG member John Temple hinted that Machen made the move in response to the pressure from the governor’s office.

“There's obviously political interference here," Temple said of Machen’s decision.

Members of the UF community are also concerned about Scott’s decision to strong-arm former UF Board of Trustees Chairman Carlos Alfonso into stepping down. According to the Gainesville Sun: “Sources said Scott allowed Alfonso to withdraw his application rather than have it pulled by the governor.”

Tom Auxter, a UF philosophy professor, said he was concerned about the decision because Alfonso had "evolved into somebody who really understands the university — and then all of a sudden he's given notice that he will not be on the board."

Auxter is also president of the United Faculty of Florida, the union that represents some 8,000 employees in the university and college system.

"What's happening is that Scott is taking people with experience who understand the consequences of what they're doing and replacing them with people who just have convictions but don't have all that much background," he added.

Auxter and other UF faculty members are worried that Scott’s strong interest in the “Seven Breakthrough Solutions” education reforms promoted by the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative think tank, could place tenure in jeopardy. Back in March of 2011, Scott signed tenure-killing "merit pay" legislation for Florida’s K-12 schools.

"They don't outright abolish tenure, but they do everything that they can to kill it," Auxter said. "Nobody's going to be deceived by it."

Machen told Alachua County’s legislative delegation that UF "will quickly become a regional university at best" if tenure is eliminated. Alfonso was outright dismissive of the Texas plan while he was one the Board of Trustees.

That could be why Machen is about to join Alfonso out the door.

Scott admitted that he’s been discussing the Texas plan with his appointees to the state university boards throughout Florida, including three trustees he recently appointed at UF. One of Scott’s UF appointees, Michael Heekin, told the Gainesville Sun that he shares the governor’s desire to discuss changes to the tenure system.

If Scott and his cronies on the UF Board of Trustees get their way, UF could end up with a president who won’t push hard for new tax dollars or tuition increases to plug the budget hole. It could also end up with a president who won’t fight to protect tenure.

That scenario would lead to UF being kicked out of the Association of American Universities (AAU). Florida would join Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina, West Virginia, Arkansas, and Kentucky as one of the southern states that doesn’t have a single university that qualifies for membership in that prestigious organization.

No help is going to come from the BOG. As the Gainesville Sun editorial board writes: "The Board of Governors is proving incapable of demonstrating leadership or standing up to political interference."

Scott’s political interference at FAMU and UF is a threat to the entire State University System of Florida. The other public universities had better wake up and start fighting back before the Tea Party turns them all into dirt cheap diploma mills.