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Gov. Ron DeSantis expanded his drive to steer Florida’s public colleges and universities to the political right Tuesday, outlining plans to dismantle campus diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
“There are some people that think you have a right to have some taxpayer institutions with no accountability. That they should just be able to do whatever they want,” DeSantis said. “That is not happening in the state of Florida.”
Without offering specifics, DeSantis accused colleges and universities of advancing programs based on liberal politics and requiring that staff, students and initiatives meet an “ideological litmus test.”
The more we’re centering higher education on the integrity of the academics, excellence, pursuit of truth, teaching kids to think for themselves and not try to impose an orthodoxy, you are going to see people flooding into these institutions,” DeSantis said. “Academia, writ large, across the country has really lost its way.”
Diversity, equity and inclusion: DeSantis said he wants these programs dismantled, along with the “bureaucracies” and staff supporting them. The programs are intended to attract and support faculty and students from a wider range of ethnic, racial and demographic backgrounds, but have emerged as a point of attack for conservative politicians and media.
Tenure: The governor signed legislation last year that requires all tenured professors to undergo a comprehensive review every five years. Tenure has been around since at least the 1940s and was enacted to blunt political interference and give faculty freedom to discuss and research controversial topics without fear of dismissal.
“The most significant deadweight cost at universities is typically unproductive tenured faculty,” DeSantis said.
He also called for giving university presidents more authority over the hiring process, saying faculty committees currently are too deeply involved and “if they have a certain world view, they’re looking to promote, that’s who they’re going to bring in.
Conservative programs: DeSantis touted the state’s specialty civics centers already opened at Florida State University and Florida International University. But he said he wants the newly established Hamilton Center for Classical and Civil Education at UF to become its own college allied with the university by 2024, with its own dorms and classrooms.
“You want these things to be different from what the orthodoxy is,” DeSantis said.
The United Faculty of Florida, the union representing 25,000 faculty members at public colleges and universities, earlier this week said it opposes “extremist, authoritarian attacks from Florida’s executive and legislative branches."
“Florida students, families and communities deserve better than the lies and misinformation flowing unstemmed out of Tallahassee,” UFF said in a statement supporting what it called academic freedom.