Sabbir Rashid Nibir | Contributing Writer
In recent years, Governor Ron DeSantis has played a significant role in selecting the leaders of Florida’s public colleges. However, a new bill in the Florida House seeks to change that, preventing the governor and his staff from intervening in the search for university presidents.
The proposed bill would grant university boards final authority in selecting their presidents, eliminating the approval from the state’s Board of Governors. One more major shift would be that the bill would get rid of the rule that keeps presidential candidate’s names private, so the whole procedure would be more transparent to the public.
Rep. Michelle Salzman, who introduced the bill, says it’s about bringing clarity to the process, rather than targeting the governor. This development comes shortly after DeSantis pushed Florida International University to appoint his lieutenant governor, Jeannette Nunez, as interim president.
Beyond FIU, the governor’s influence in selecting university presidents appears to be growing, reflecting a trend in Florida where politics issues seem to impact more than academic credentials in these decisions.
DeSantis has expressed his will to dismiss what he calls “woke indoctrination” from colleges. In one particular case, DeSantis saw an open university president role as a way to oust a political party out of tal.
In a recent press conference, he admitted he tried to make congressman Randy Fine the president of Florida Atlantic University since other lawmakers didn’t want him to be in the legislature. “They wanted him, so I put his name forward for Florida Atlantic president,” said DeSantis. He also added that the entire board was firmly opposed to the idea, and they would rather quit their jobs than to appoint him as president.
Gov DeSantis has expressed opposition to a new House bill, saying it would waste his efforts in higher education and bring back “woke” policies. He believes that control should not be given to unelected university staff. House speaker disagreed, saying that he does not understand DeSantis’ views on“woke” ideology on college campuses.
Attorney General James Uthmeier also disagreed with the bill, stating that “Republicans in the chamber forgot they were elected to get the woke out of higher education.” He further expressed his views on X, saying “God forbid we have conservatives wanting to do conservative things.” So he supported the governor’s past involvement in choosing university leaders with strong political values and views.
Currently, a full research and approval process is required by state law to hire a university president. However, in some cases, such as FIU, the governor’s office was involved prior to the search. Lawmakers are now interested in giving more power to university boards to simplify the process.
A similar bill is being considered in the Senate. Both the house and the Senate the Board of Governor’s role in selecting university presidents. But, the senate bill, proposed by Alexis Calatayud, doesn’t include the part that would stop the governor and his staff from supporting a candidate.
When asked about the bill on Wednesday, Sen. Alexis Calatayud did not respond. She is considering making changes before a Thursday hearing, including a role that would dismiss universities from polling regarding political candidates. However, polling on social sites, political and economic concerns would still be allowed.
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