Three professors this week filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a 2023 law that revised tenure in Florida’s university system, arguing that the Legislature overstepped its authority in approving changes.
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Leon County circuit court by professors from New College of Florida, the University of Florida and the University of South Florida, contends that the Legislature unconstitutionally infringed on the authority of the state university system’s Board of Governors in passing the law.
The law, in part, effectively required tenured faculty members to “undergo a comprehensive post-tenure review” every five years that includes looking at issues such as productivity, performance and research and teaching duties. Also, the law gave university presidents final say on tenure decisions, preventing disputes from going to arbitration.
The lawsuit contends that the changes remove protections for tenured professors and “replace those protections with what amounts to a five-year contract renewable at the discretion of their university’s president.” It said that can affect professors’ career opportunities and ability to obtain government grants and “imperils academic freedoms.”
“Because traditional tenure has been abolished in Florida, plaintiffs can no longer represent to the public and their peers that they are fully tenured professors,” the 20-page lawsuit said.
The tenure changes were part of a broad higher-education law (SB 266) that came amid a series of controversial efforts by Republican lawmakers and Gov. Ron DeSantis to revamp the higher-education system and curb public-employee unions.
Plaintiffs in the lawsuit are Sarah Hernandez, a tenured professor at New College who teaches sociology classes; Steven Willis, a tenured professor at the University of Florida College of Law; and Adriana Novoa, a tenured professor at the University of South Florida who teaches social science classes. Defendants are House Speaker Paul Renner, R-Palm Coast; Senate President Kathlleen Passidomo, R-Naples, and the university system Board of Governors.
The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Angela Dempsey.
The allegations in the lawsuit hinge on a 2002 constitutional amendment that created the Board of Governors to oversee the university system. Attorneys for the professors wrote that they are “challenging the Legislature’s authority to prescribe standards for tenure and administrative review, which plaintiffs maintain are within the exclusive jurisdiction of the Board of Governors” under the constitutional amendment.
Part of the 2023 law said the Board of Governors “shall” adopt a regulation requiring tenured professors to undergo post-tenure reviews every five years. That revised a 2022 law that said the Board of Governors “may” adopt a regulation requiring such reviews.
After the 2022 law passed, the Board of Governors approved such a regulation in March 2023. Universities previously had post-tenure reviews, but system Chancellor Ray Rodrigues said the new process would make reviews uniform.
“This is a policy that has been well-developed and will serve the institution, will serve the system, and I believe ultimately will serve our faculty and our students well,” Rodrigues said at the time.
The lawsuit also focuses on part of the 2023 law that says “personnel actions or decisions regarding faculty, including in the areas of evaluations, promotions, tenure, discipline or termination, may not be appealed beyond the level of a university president or (the president’s) designee.” In the past, union contracts included the possibility of arbitration in tenure disputes.
Leon County Circuit Judge J. Lee Marsh last month refused to dismiss a separate legal challenge to that part of the law. The United Faculty of Florida, its New College chapter and a professor, Hugo Viera-Vargas, filed the lawsuit, which alleges that doing away with the possibility of arbitration violates constitutional collective-bargaining rights and impairs existing union contracts.
