Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis wants to defund diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, limit gender studies majors and concepts like expel critical race theory with new bills.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and the state’s Republican-led legislature are fighting a political and ideological war with public colleges and universities.
DeSantis first announced plans to drastically overhaul the state’s higher education system in January, floating ideas to defund diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, limit majors like gender studies, remake the small New College of Florida in his conservative vision, expel concepts like critical race theory from the curricula, and limit tenure protections for faculty. Through the bills that DeSantis recently signed this term, SB 266, HB 931 and SB 240, a number of these ideas are now law.
At a recent New College press conference, DeSantis denounced DEI, saying it was best described as “discrimination, exclusion, and indoctrination.” He also expressed his wish to have the state turn away from “niche subjects” to “employable majors.”
“If you want to do things like gender ideology, go to Berkeley. For us with our tax dollars, we want to be on the classical mission of what a university is supposed to be,” DeSantis told the audience, alongside Christopher Rufo, the conservative activist and newly appointed New College trustee leading the attack on critical race theory.
A new report from the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), the organization that established the nation’s tenure principles back in 1940, argues the state is leading an “assault” that is “unparalleled in US history.” And it’s not just Florida’s students and faculty who stand to be harmed, the organization wrote: “If sustained, this onslaught threatens the very survival of meaningful higher education in the state, with dire implications for the entire country.”
According to a statement, the DeSantis administration believes these bills will bring the state closer to its goal of being the top state for higher education and the top state for workforce education by 2030.
But the scope of the legislation will only weaken the system by undermining academic freedom and shared governance, the AAUP argues. The report also found details about how the governor’s attempt to change higher education has been going. Since DeSantis started announcing his plans, AAUP learned that administrators throughout the state haven’t challenged DeSantis, pushing back neither publicly nor privately. The organization also found that the lawmakers have already produced a chilling effect on academic freedom, with self-censorship and fear “spilling over” into the private institutions, as some faculty look outside of Florida for work. What’s in SB 266 — the mammoth anti-DEI bill
The heftiest of the three higher education bills is SB 266, which DeSantis signed into law on May 15. It contains broad directives — requiring every state college and university to revise its mission statement and strategic plan — but also some specific ones, limiting the types of courses and majors institutions can offer.
The bill states that an institution’s mission statement and strategic plan must be reviewed and in alignment.
