Florida professors claim hiring changes undermine speech and harm academic environment in new lawsuit

The legal battle begins in another branch of government. Ron DeSantis‘Higher Education Programme: A Major Overhaul of the Tenure System.

Three Florida public university professors filed a lawsuit Wednesday over recent tenure changes they say strip them of “significant protections of their current tenure.”

This not only harms professional development, they write, but also means that “professors’ speech is at risk of being chilled, the progress of intellectual inquiry is slowed, and students are not exposed to novel or cutting-edge thoughts and ideas.”

And that’s not the only accusation made in the lawsuit filed in Leon County Civil Court.

Changes in term and accusations

The professors’ concerns stem from a 2023 law authored by DeSantis and GOP lawmakers that requires tenured faculty at Florida’s public universities to undergo comprehensive post-tenure reviews every five years and gives the president final decision-making authority.

“The biggest collateral damage to universities is usually tenured faculty who are not productive,” DeSantis said, as previously reported by USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida.

Tenure generally protects professors’ positions until they retire. But three professors involved in the case said, “(It) boils down to a five-year renewable contract at the discretion of their university president.”

The loss of tenure-track protections, they continued, makes it harder for government professors to receive grants and advance in their fields.

They are Sarah Hernandez, professor of sociology at New College of Florida, Steven Willis, lecturer at the University of Florida Law School, and Adriana Novoa, professor of social sciences at the University of South Florida.

The professors also argue that the Legislature unconstitutionally encroached on the authority of the Florida Board of Governors, which governs the state’s public universities.

“Having successfully imposed its will on the Board of Governors… the Legislature will likely expand its control over the state university system with respect to curriculum, tenure, and basic policy arrangements in the future,” the professors wrote.

The defendants are the Florida Board of Governors, Senate President Kathleen Passidomo and House Speaker Paul Renner. Representatives for the board and Renner did not immediately respond to media requests.

“The Senate has not been served at this time, although we did receive a copy of the lawsuit earlier this week, which the president reviewed,” Katie Betta, a spokeswoman for Passidomo, said in an email. “Her practice has been to not comment on pending litigation.”

District Judge Leon J. Lee Marsh declined to dismiss a separate challenge to the term changes last month, according to the News Service of Florida. Judge Angela Dempsey is overseeing the latest case.

This is not the only battle for higher education

This isn’t the only legal fight against higher education policies pushed by DeSantis and Florida’s Republican supermajority. They have enacted a slew of controversial changes in recent years.

In fact, this isn’t Professor Novoa’s first plaintiff lawsuit. She’s challenging a key part of DeSantis’s much-touted “Stop WOKE Act,” which restricts discussion of race, gender and other topics in state university classrooms.

That part of the case is currently blocked by federal judges until an appeals court issues a decision.

Plaintiff Hernandez also sued the state to bar funding for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs at state colleges and universities. That lawsuit was dismissed due to lack of legal standing, but the federal judge who issued the decision seemed dissatisfied with the measure.

“Here we have real professors teaching real subjects in a real school where lawmakers and policymakers have shown real hostility to certain ideas and viewpoints, and now there is a law that may or may not be used to punish them,” wrote Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker, an Obama appointee.

To make matters worse, DeSantis took over at New College of Florida, a school known for the progressive views of its faculty and students.

And at an event last month, DeSantis said the state is looking to make more changes to higher education. He accused leftist professors of trying to indoctrinate students: “If Marxist professors are leaving Florida, that’s not a bad thing,” he said.

Provided by: News Service of Florida. This report is supported by a partnership with Freedom Forum and Journalism Funding Partners. USA Today Network-Florida First Amendment reporter Douglas Soule can be reached at [email protected].

This article originally appeared in the Tallahassee Democrat: Florida professors sue, say tenure change is harmful, speech sends chills