By Reginald Stuart
TALLAHASSEE, FL — The assault on Florida’s state controlled higher education by southern conservative advocates got a major political boost this month when the University of Florida said it was eliminating all positions focused on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, a move hailed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
The decision was among a variety of state actions championed by Gov. DeSantis who again voiced his support for challenging long established higher education governing boards, such as the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SASCOC) in Atlanta. That higher education standards organization, in the past few decades, has tried to bring all colleges and universities to common basic standards regarding staffing, financial soundness and administrative leadership.
In the process, Gov. DeSantis asserts, the prevailing regulators have been trying to “impose an orthodoxy,” adding in a recent speech, regulators are trying to make “DEI part of an accrediting ethos.” He is helping pursue “a needed correction,” he said.
Earlier this year, The Florida Board of Education, announced a new rule banning public higher education institutions from using federal funds for diversity, equity and inclusion programs for activities and students.
The announcement earlier this month terminates 13 DEI full-time positions and 15 administrative appointments.
During his announcement at a public event this month, Gov. DeSantis also said academic tenure terms were being revisited with a “review” every five years. He said ending the flexibility of tenure rules ends the “monopoly” he says “unproductive” higher education veterans use to keep their jobs. He pointed to education associations as “unions” promoting and defending tenure.
The Florida action grabbed the attention of education advocates across the region.
“These actions by the Florida Governor are a sad reflection of misunderstanding exploited for political purposes to create fear and hate among the Governor’s base of supporters,” said Atty. Raymond Pierce, president of the Atlanta-based Southern Education. Foundation (SEF).
“The Governor’s actions also reflect a degree of anti-intellectualism that is particularly damaging to the state’s need to provide quality and competitive higher education opportunity for Floridians,” said Pierce, echoing the sentiments of education advocates across the region.
The state’s only Historically Black College, Florida A & M University, in Tallahassee, with more than 7,000 students, is included in the legislation eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion staff and administrators. FAMU President Larry Robinson, a Memphis native who was a scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in East Tennessee before becoming chief executive at FAMU, could not be reached for comment.
Gov. DeSantis threatened to shut down diversity work last year. With support from the super majority in the state legislature, “he’s running rampant,” said a long-time instructor at one of the state’s numerous public schools. “It’s unfortunate because past wrongs have not been righted,” said the observer who declined to speak for attribution. “But, the observer said, “he’s not concerned about being fair.”
While Tennessee officials have not commented on the Florida move, the sate’s legislature has been battling over issues that could spark the increasingly politically divided group. In this case, control of Tennessee State University is the chip on the table.
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