BOG creates easier path to fire tenured professors

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The Florida Board of Governors, the governing board which oversees Florida’s public universities, on Wednesday approved a post-tenure-review process that allows poorly performing professors to be fired.

About 10 professors and students urged the board during the public-comment section of the meeting (held at FAMU) not to approve the regulation. They argued that it would weaken tenure and drive talented scholars away from Florida. They also said that professors are already evaluated a considerable amount.

Andrew Gothard, president of the statewide United Faculty of Florida, told board members if the rule were approved, “Florida’s 12-campus university system would go from the most competitive in the country to the least, because the regulation would turn tenure into a five-year revolving contract.”

 Earlier this year, FL Gov. Ron DeSantis said that “unproductive” tenured professors are the “most significant deadweight cost” at universities. He then proposed sweeping — and contentious — changes in the state’s higher-ed system.

Under the approved regulation, professors will be judged on that timeline on their research, teaching, and service, their “history of professional conduct and performance of academic responsibilities,” and any noncompliance with state laws and university regulations, unapproved absences from teaching, or “substantiated” student complaints, among other factors.

A professor will ultimately be rated as “exceeds expectations,” “meets expectations,” “does not meet expectations,” or “unsatisfactory.” The rating will be made by the professor’s dean, and the university’s chief academic officer can then reject, accept, or change it.

For those rated as meeting or exceeding expectations, the dean will recommend to the provost “appropriate recognition and/or compensation.”

Those rated as “does not meet expectations” will be placed on a performance-improvement plan with a deadline that cannot exceed 12 months. Professors who fail to meet the requirements of their plan by the deadline will be fired, the regulation says.

Under the plain language of the regulation, it seems that professors deemed unsatisfactory could be fired without being put on a performance-improvement plan first. That concern was raised by some professors in the months leading up to Wednesday’s meeting.

The University of Central Florida said in comments submitted last year that one year to improve performance is not enough if the issue is research: “For example, it can take longer than one year for submitted journal articles to be reviewed, or for grants to be proposed and funded.”

Heather Russell, vice provost for faculty leadership and success at Florida International University, wrote that the process described in the regulation “deviates from the normal evaluation process typically followed by most institutions.” Usually, post-tenure review entails review by only a department chair, a dean, or both, she wrote. But under the regulation, the provost, with “guidance and oversight from the university president,” is the ultimate evaluator.

“In short,” Russell wrote, “the proposed moves the evaluative process away from the actual environment in which the work is being conducted.”