DeSantis pushed for post-tenure review of Florida professors. The first results are in.

TALLAHASSEE, Florida — At least 10 university faculty members across Florida have been terminated with dozens more put on notice to improve their work since the state adopted post-tenure review policies championed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, according to data compiled by POLITICO.

The results of initial tenure reviews across the state’s public universities show that most faculty in Florida — 91 percent — either met or exceeded the expectations set by their universities, a performance that earned them bonuses or raises. But the outcome was more damaging for a small minority. More than 60 faculty members statewide didn’t meet expectations and were given one year to course correct or else face termination, in addition to the 10 that were shown the door this year.

The reviews are just a part of DeSantis' and Florida Republicans’ goal of reshaping the state’s higher education system. The governor has installed GOP allies in top university and college posts and pushed laws that changed tenure — which DeSantis said was necessary to counteract “unproductive” tenured faculty who were the “most significant deadweight cost” facing universities. Florida Republicans also limited how university professors can teach lessons on race — which is being challenged in court — and even changed how Florida higher education institutions are accredited.

“Governor DeSantis expects universities to focus on pursuing truth and preparing students to be citizens of this republic. Professors who exceed expectations should be proud of their contributions,” DeSantis spokesperson Jeremy Redfern said in a statement. “However, there must also be accountability to ensure that professors at universities continue to perform and contribute to their university's academic success.”

“These audits show that the system is working as designed,” he concluded.

Faculty tenure previously emerged as a banner issue for state Republicans fighting against what they consider a liberal bias or “ideological indoctrination” in higher education, leading to a 2022 law that ushered in significant changes for schools.

A key piece of that law required universities to perform post-tenure reviews for faculty every five years through a process that was carried out for the first time in 2024, reviewing 20 percent of professors statewide.

These faculty members, under a rule crafted by the Board of Governors in charge of Florida’s university system, were graded by school officials based on their level of accomplishment and productivity — judged on “assigned duties in research, teaching, and service” — while also being evaluated for instances of noncompliance with state law, unapproved absences and substantiated student complaints.

Faculty unions fiercely opposed the tenure review law, arguing that it would turn tenure into a 5-year revolving contract and push professors away from Florida. The United Faculty of Florida claims that the policy effectively ends tenure while eroding academic freedom in the state.

Tenure is meant to be a guardrail protecting free speech for faculty that studied, taught and researched for years to earn it, said Robin Goodman, a professor at Florida State University who leads the school’s United Faculty of Florida chapter.

“People outside don’t know how hard it is to get tenure,” Goodman said. “By the time you get it, it’s a way of life.”

In the first year of Florida’s post-tenure review, more than half of professors — 437 out of 861 — exceeded expectations in the eyes of their universities, the data shows. These results earned some faculty one-time bonuses ranging from $10,000 at University of Florida to $5,000 at Florida A&M University and Florida Atlantic University.

Another 350 faculty met expectations according to their schools, a performance mark that is on par with the expected contributions in a professor’s area that nets smaller bonuses or pay increases.

A significantly smaller number of tenured faculty members across Florida — 64 — failed to meet expectations, which requires them to develop “performance improvement plans” with school leaders to ratchet up production or hone their teaching skills over the next year. The state’s post-tenure rule spells out that faculty who don’t meet the requirements detailed in those plans must receive a notice of termination from the university’s chief academic officer.

Further, 10 faculty members were determined to have “unsatisfactory” performance, resulting in automatic notices for termination. The tenure review data does not specify the fields taught by faculty at any performance level.

Some faculty members fear that tenure reviews could be used more as a cloak for political retaliation than rooting out unproductive professors as claimed.

Since the reviews are tied to compliance in state law, a wrinkle some unions attempted to bargain out of faculty contracts, there are concerns professors could face heightened scrutiny in areas broaching instruction on race and gender — culture war issues targeted by Republicans. One key law touted by the GOP, the so-called Stop Woke act meant to prohibit faculty from teaching lessons over issues like “white privilege,” has been blocked by courts for more than two years with an appeal pending. State officials this year have also called upon the university system to review courses that delve into topics including Israel, Palestinians and Zionism on the heels of campus protests.

For faculty members, they worry that if they say or research the wrong thing, it could mean their jobs.

“If I’m a professor and that’s a piece of my course, of course I’m going to be apprehensive going into the process,” said Samique March-Dallas, a professor at FAMU and the president of the school’s UFF chapter. “If my scholarship is focused on an area that’s pretty much under attack, how does that work?”

Faculty unions in some cases are helping terminated professors file grievances — formal complaints alleging collective bargain violations — including two at the University of Florida, the school that was most aggressive in its reviews.

Under recently resigned president Ben Sasse, UF determined that 34 faculty members failed to meet expectations and five were unsatisfactory. Comparatively, 12 professors at University of South Florida didn’t meet expectations and one was unsatisfactory. There were eight professors put on notice to improve and two terminated at University of Central Florida and none of either reported at FSU.

The tenure decisions at UF were not political, nor made because faculty had controversial ideas, according to Scott Angle, who stepped down as the university’s provost last month. Those faculty members who were terminated either fell behind as researchers or teachers and in some cases “should have been fired 10 years ago,” Angle said.

Angle contends that Florida’s budding review policy will ultimately make tenure stronger by rooting out abuses where some faculty are using it to hide poor performance.

“When post-tenure review came along, it gave us the opportunity to clean up the system,” Angle said.