Florida universities push back on proposed tenure rules

A proposed regulation that would guide decisions on faculty tenure based on Florida’s new ‘Stop WOKE’ law is drawing concern from officials at several state universities, writes Divya Kumar for Tampa Bay Times.

The policy would create a review for all tenured faculty members in the university system every five years, starting with those who have served the longest. It would be based on several factors, including their compliance with the new law, which forbids universities from “indoctrinating” students with concepts such as white privilege and other ideas and theories surrounding race. Those rated unsatisfactory during the review could be fired by their provost. The regulation says a faculty member cannot be fired because of political beliefs or ideology, and a top official argues that termination would happen only after someone failed to improve. It also allows for appeals.

But universities have bristled at many other parts of the proposal, records show. An associate provost at Florida Atlantic University wrote that the termination provision lacked due process. Florida International University asked how bias and indoctrination would be measured and the University of Central Florida questioned the 12-month timeline that faculty would have to improve their work, arguing it wouldn’t be long enough for those who needed to conduct more research.
Full report on the Tamba Bay Times site