The Death of Public Tenure in Florida

April 20, 2022 3:02 PM

Florida bill SB 7044, signed into law today, ends meaningful tenure at the state’s public institutions of higher education. It imposes a new five year review cycle covering “assigned duties in research, teaching, and service” while simultaneously requiring public lists of assigned readings and syllabi, effectively imposing popular and political review of courses and professors.

Inside Higher Ed has an early report registration required, 5 articles/month unregistered — here’s an archived copy) quoting faculty union president Andrew Gothard:

[Faculty already undergo an] extensive performance review process, tenured or otherwise; they are already held accountable by their peers and employers … The only missing piece in that equation is that tenured faculty cannot be fired for political reasons, meaning the passing whims of the latest politician in power cannot be used to harm the future of Florida’s students and institutions.”

All of this, of course, is not nearly so awful as the Republican government’s attacks on trans (earlier today) and gay (last month) youth, or rejecting individual textbooks for including modern concepts of race and history (yesterday) but it’s part of the same terrible slide.

posted by Songdog (31 comments total)

It's definitely a slap at the public universities, a pile of steaming, extra, unneeded work.
posted by doctornemo at 3:11 PM on April 20, 2022 [7 favorites]

(I don't think Inside Higher Ed is paywalled. Last I saw they require a free registration. Regwalled?)
posted by doctornemo at 3:12 PM on April 20, 2022 [1 favorite]

Good catch, doctornemo. Modsignal’d!
posted by Songdog at 3:16 PM on April 20, 2022 [1 favorite]

So the bill reads:

requiring
67 each tenured state university faculty member to undergo a
68 comprehensive post-tenure review every 5 years. The board may
69 include other considerations in the regulation, but the
70 regulation must address:
71 1. Accomplishments and productivity;
72 2. Assigned duties in research, teaching, and service;
73 3. Performance metrics, evaluations, and ratings; and
74 4. Recognition and compensation considerations, as well as
75 improvement plans and consequences for underperformance.

I am tenured faculty at an open admission state school in the western U.S, and we have to complete an annual review yearly. Our school also uses Canvas, which at one point made noise about using analytic data to track professor behavior in online courses, but seems to have calmed down, and now they have a new CEO, so I guess that 2019 presentation on the dangers of Canvas Instructor Surveillance that was postponed for two years because of Covid will have to be rewritten.

I sometimes wonder if the work I do matters, and then I look back at history and how the first thing autocratic despots do is line up the college professors and shoot them, and then see the attacks on the Universities by people like DeSantis, and realize that we must be doing something right.

Not everything in this bill is terrible. There's a section on using open access textbooks, for example.
posted by mecran01 at 3:37 PM on April 20, 2022 [40 favorites]

Fascists.
posted by eustatic at 7:06 PM on April 20, 2022 [6 favorites]

Something something CRT screening, something something cancel culture, something something it's ok if we're removing other people's freedoms and not imposing any limitations on the good people
posted by Jacen at 7:20 PM on April 20, 2022 [9 favorites]

[bugs-bunny-florida-sawing.gif]
posted by slater at 9:03 PM on April 20, 2022 [7 favorites]

we have to complete an annual review yearly.

I would certainly hope so.
posted by Sphinx at 12:09 AM on April 21, 2022 [7 favorites]

Remember that Thatcher killed tenure in all UK universities a long time ago.
posted by bifurcated at 4:47 AM on April 21, 2022 [3 favorites]

Yeah and it's one of the reasons that UK academics spend 25% of their waking time chasing metrics and subject to filling out paperwork and dealing with absurd top down control of every aspect of their pedagogical lives. Tenure destruction by thatcher meant you were just another state employee.

It's one of the reasons I left the uk for the us.

It's coming to the us now.
posted by lalochezia at 4:57 AM on April 21, 2022 [14 favorites]

Post-tenure review isn't a new concept nor does it inherently signal the "death of tenure." I understand faculty frustration with the imposition of new work but tenure is not a promise of lifetime employment without any responsibilities or requirements. Of course, post-tenure review can be done poorly and with malicious intent but that's not inherent in the idea. And I completely understand the mistrust of this specific governor and legislature - I agree that this isn't driven by legitimate concerns about faculty productivity and a desire to continue supporting faculty post-tenure (which is a genuine issue!). But post-tenure review as a concept and in practice is not inherently an attempt to undermine tenure even if this specific instance may be an attempt to do that.

A much more concerning part of this bill (or maybe another that was recently passed; it's hard to keep track of the fountain of shit erupting from Tallahassee these days...) is that public colleges and universities are now required to change to another accreditor after every accreditation cycle. That's an immense waste of time and money. Moreover, it's impossible as accreditors simply won't allow institutions to do that. Changing institutional accreditation can take up to a decade and is only done for substantive reasons e.g., a significant change in institutional mission, the acquisition or deacquisition of one or more major campuses.

The government of Florida is actively hostile to its citizens and I hope that they wake up to that soon.
posted by ElKevbo at 5:46 AM on April 21, 2022 [7 favorites]

oh, we're awake to it, ElKevbo. I totally get the sawing-off-Florida.gif sentiment but it's worth noting that in the the 15 years I've lived here, Republicans won the governor's office by maybe 4 percentage points *total*. We're not all bad. We push back. We just keep coming up short and I'm afraid we will again this time as neither gov. candidate seems to be catching fire.

But yeah, I have two teenage sons, both are brilliant, passionate students (and activists too!) and they've already written off going to any Florida college. They're heading north (as will Ms. Blank and I) and never return. That's just what a state shouldn't want, but I think it's exactly what DeSantis wants -- to drive progressives out of the state and make it a Republican fiefdom forever. I guess we're playing into his hands, but I'm just so sick of this place.
posted by martin q blank at 6:10 AM on April 21, 2022 [21 favorites]

Also-- and more to the point of this post-- I spent a lot of time in grad school and knew so many people hoping to land professor gigs. This is the sort of thing that will deter good people from seeking posts at Florida colleges. Or at least make it a choice of last resort. Which will weaken the colleges and once again play into this bastard's hands of weakening higher education in the state. He's an evil SOB.
posted by martin q blank at 6:13 AM on April 21, 2022 [7 favorites]

ElKevbo: ...public colleges and universities are now required to change to another accreditor after every accreditation cycle....

THE HELL?

I work at a university, and our periodic accreditation review takes like two or three years each cycle. Switching accreditors is kind of inconceivable, because there aren't that many. I mean, it's not like Boston College going from the Big East basketball conference to the Big Ten or whatever: there simply aren't many choices for agencies to review and approve our work.

The disgusted movie quote "I hate Illinois Nazis" is rapidly becoming "I hate Florida/Arizona/Texas/Ohio Republicans" in my inner monlogue.
posted by wenestvedt at 6:23 AM on April 21, 2022 [7 favorites]

That's just what a state shouldn't want, but I think it's exactly what DeSantis wants -- to drive progressives out of the state and make it a Republican fiefdom forever.

Which, as its standard of living inevitably devolves to that of Mississippi and the other Republican-run states, will enjoy generous subsidies from blue state taxpayers like the rest of them. Feh.
posted by Gelatin at 6:26 AM on April 21, 2022 [5 favorites]

He wants all the schools to be Liberty U. clones as part of his overall goal, which is to make the whole state over into The Villages. But I think he may be trying to do it all at once and too quickly. I hope his mean-daddy attitude towards Disney causes them to pull up stakes and move to, IDK, Reno or somewhere. Without the anchor park all the other theme parks will wither and die and all the "magic" will wear off Orlando, revealing the astounding rot beneath. That eliminates one draw. If the schools all start to suck then the medicine will begin to suffer and sentient seniors will start to look elsewhere for less lethal retirement opportunities. Thanks to that Tampa judge eliminating safety measures aboard transit modalities, normies the world over will start to avoid travel to the states and Florida in particular. No more yearly tides of frolicking Germans. And then the sea-level rise he has done zip to slow will ramp up and swamp the big fun coastal cities. Et voila! Florida subsides beneath the shifting seas and sands without Bugs Bunny having to put down his carrot and pick up a saw.
posted by Don Pepino at 6:34 AM on April 21, 2022 [3 favorites]

The state college system has been under this post tenure review system for I think 10 years now. Universities are now being added to it, as I understand it.

Our college President seems to believe the changing of accreditors will be overturned once the state realizes that students attending an non-accredited institution don't qualify for federal financial aid. If you are already in the middle of an accreditation cycle (which we are) you are exempt until the next cycle begins, which gives us 5 years for the law to be changed.

It's possible our President is overly optimistic. More and more I expect I will have to retire from teaching earlier than I expected to.
posted by wittgenstein at 7:47 AM on April 21, 2022 [4 favorites]

This is the sort of thing that will deter good people from seeking posts at Florida colleges.

I'm on the academic job market, and did not apply to any of the Georgia (same deal, maybe worse?) or Florida jobs this cycle ( there were rumblings about the Florida bill earlier). I know some peers who added Texas to their "won't apply" list since Abbott has been making similar threats (plus the abortion bill and more recent anti-trans bill). Some peers have gone so far as to not apply to any state school in all red states, which frankly is probably wise, given the general hatred the GOP directs at educators these days.

Yes, people are leaving academia in droves because there simply aren't enough tenure-track jobs, but also because many of those coveted tenure-track jobs are increasingly not that attractive. One of my options this year was a TT job in rural Georgia, with a 4/4 load (that's a lot, especially if doing research is expected), for something like 55k - and the tenure part isn't even real? Hard pass.
posted by coffeecat at 8:11 AM on April 21, 2022 [9 favorites]

I'm on the academic job market, and did not apply to any of the Georgia (same deal, maybe worse?) or Florida jobs this cycle ( there were rumblings about the Florida bill earlier). I know some peers who added Texas to their "won't apply" list since Abbott has been making similar threats (plus the abortion bill and more recent anti-trans bill).

Having been at Georgia for undergrad, I was pretty sure I could handle a PhD in Texas--after all, the people I'd be living among would be fine, right?--and figured they'd be pretty similar. Eight years at UT was... different, and my colleagues back in Georgia tell me things are getting worse. It is bad enough that *exhausted gesture at the rest of academia's massive culture and compensation issues* without having your workplace serving as perhaps the most visible and favorite target of the state legislature that controls it. After Cocks Not Glocks and the guns on campus bills and the constant drumming reminders that the state Lege hates us every ten fucking minutes, I'm not the same person I was then.

I would not take a job in Texas again today. I would not take a job in Florida or Georgia again today. I am pathetically grateful to be in Minnesota right now, and heartbroken for the many friends I left behind and the people who are still trying to do well by one another; for the students who use these universities as a lifeline to better prospects; for the infrastructure and education that gets eroded when the state university systems crumble.

It is exhausting.
posted by sciatrix at 8:59 AM on April 21, 2022 [17 favorites]

Sciatrix, I did my PhD at TTU in Lubbock. I have a distinct memory from when the open carry on campus laws were getting passed of my female colleagues lamenting that they were already getting intimidated by large, male students for bad grades. They were genuinely terrified at the prospect of these same, emotionally fragile men walking into their offices armed.
posted by TheKaijuCommuter at 9:23 AM on April 21, 2022 [9 favorites]

Many institutions already have post-tenure review requirements, as well as other provisions that aren't called "post-tenure review" but have the same effect (e.g., repeatedly poor annual reviews triggering a more comprehensive committee review that can result in revocation of tenure). And tenured faculty can always be terminated for cause as well. So I don't see this as being particularly newsworthy and although in this particular case it's done with malign intent, post-tenure review is not inherently bad. Tenure protects academic freedom; it's not a promise of lifetime employment no matter how poorly you're doing your job.

But having to switch accreditors? That is absolutely batshit. These people obviously have no idea what the knock-on effects of that would be. So many things at a university are structured just to meet specific accreditor requirements. It's not just a matter of different paperwork! And the federal government delegates quality control to accrediting bodies by making aid to education funding contingent on accreditation, so mucking around in the accreditation process imperils the entire system.
posted by HotToddy at 9:40 AM on April 21, 2022 [5 favorites]

Why would Florida Republicans want universities to switch accreditors? I don't understand that. How does that further their evil schemes? Is it just death by paperwork?
posted by pH Indicating Socks at 11:27 AM on April 21, 2022 [2 favorites]

Probably it's as simple as "SACS is a bunch of liberal communist pedophiles and we want to be accredited by proper Christians!"
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 11:32 AM on April 21, 2022 [3 favorites]

Not everything in this bill is terrible. There's a section on using open access textbooks, for example.

Even the section on open access textbooks is terrible. It allows bookstores to override faculty textbook decisions to "source lower cost options when practicable."
posted by fogovonslack at 11:43 AM on April 21, 2022 [5 favorites]

SACS supported the UF professors who were prevented from providing evidence about the election. This legislation is direct “revenge” against SACS, which, of course, doesn’t actually hurt SACS but does affect colleges in the state.
posted by wittgenstein at 11:51 AM on April 21, 2022 [4 favorites]

There are academic freedom issues that I never understand with state universities. Their professors are state employees with 1st amendment protections which protect them from being fired for specific positions or speech, but their overall "performance" is fair game. This has a weird interaction with speech that is offensive or otherwise harmful to students. See the recent large payout to a professor for retaliation after mis-gendering trans students.
posted by a robot made out of meat at 11:53 AM on April 21, 2022

...generous subsidies from blue state taxpayers...

Those damned red-state welfare queens.
posted by cinchona at 12:03 PM on April 21, 2022 [3 favorites]

Even the section on open access textbooks is terrible. It allows bookstores to override faculty textbook decisions to "source lower cost options when practicable."

Yep - I work for a university 5ish years into a similar (school-level) mandate, and the open access resources thing has revealed itself to be a another neoliberal saw: poorly thought-through, carelessly applied, and with little concern for quality or consequences. It's essentially a marketing tool, and deeply anti-scholarly and anti-intellectual when applied with a broad brush. Real race to the bottom stuff.
posted by ryanshepard at 12:12 PM on April 21, 2022 [2 favorites]

mucking around in the accreditation process imperils the entire system

Can't help but wonder if they know that perfectly well.
posted by CheesesOfBrazil at 12:21 PM on April 21, 2022 [2 favorites]

A similar bill has come up for the last couple years in Iowa. Every year, it gets a little more traction before it dies. Make no mistake, Florida isn’t alone on this.
posted by Big Al 8000 at 6:55 PM on April 22, 2022

I wish democrats would counter with a little discussion of McCarthyism and why tenure was instituted to begin with. As long as Republicans like DeSantis can paint it as an unearned perk, many of those who are struggling and listening to the news with half an ear will resent it rather than understand its value.
posted by Violet Blue at 9:59 AM on April 23, 2022