Talahassee – In recent years, Gov. Ron DeSantis has helped establish political allies at the helm of public universities and universities to remake Florida’s higher education into a conservative fortress.
Now, the bill moving forward at a Republican-led Florida home is trying to stop his administration’s governor and employees from taking part in the university’s presidential search.
If approved, the House bill prohibits government governors or employees from discussing presidential vacancies and anticipated openings with state and local university leaders.
The bill also removes the requirement that the state university system board review the candidates selected by the university. Instead, each university’s board of directors has the authority to select and appoint a president of choice. The proposal would also abolish public record exemptions to make the presidential selection process more transparent.
“The bill has no problem discussing the issue with the governor and his team,” stated on Wednesday after she was criticised online for trying to remove the governor from the selection process.
The proposal comes just two months after the governor’s office urged Florida International University to hire Janet Nuñez as interim president without a search. Nunez was a gogner governor during DeSantis when the governor’s office defended her employment. According to her contract, she is currently earning an annual salary of $850,000 as interim president.
In addition to FIU, the governor’s influence on the university’s presidential search is becoming increasingly clear, highlighting Florida’s trends that appear to support political ties to academic qualifications as Desantis works to eradicate what has been marked as “awakening indoctrination” on university campuses.
In at least one case, the governor viewed the open presidency as an opportunity to move his rivals from Tallahassee. At a press conference last week, he revealed that he wanted to take him out and that he was at the helm of Florida Atlantic University to place former state legislator Rep. Randy Fein.
“They wanted him out of Congress, so they asked Florida Atlantic President to put him in, and I did, and the whole board would have resigned rather than make him president,” DeSantis said at a press conference last week.
Attorney General James Usmier, who served as the governor’s chief of staff until late February, criticized the House proposal on Wednesday, saying Republicans “we forgot that we were woken up.”
“God forbids anyone who wants to do something conservative,” Uthmeier said in a post on X.
Uthmeier added that it was “an honor” to help conservative presidents at the helm of eight state universities, including FIU, New College, Florida and Florida Atlantic University. At New College and Fau, the president has a more political-focused background than academics.
Former Florida House Speaker Richard Corcoran oversaw the conservative makeover at New College. And then the FAU is Adam Hasner, a former GOP MP who worked as the director of public policy for Geo Group, a private prison company. Last week, FAU police called for immigration enforcement agencies to question people on campus and detain them as they are seeking more immigration enforcement at the state and local levels.
Florida law requires the university board to conduct a search to select presidential candidates.
When the FIU Council selected Nuñez as interim president in February, a member of the FIU Board of Directors said that state rules “do not anticipate the reality of the engaged governor’s office involved in the employment of the president.”
“I don’t think that engagement will change over the next few years,” board chair Dean Colson said at the meeting. If rules remain unchanged, Colson said the university “needs to spend a lot of time and money if potential results of the search are already known.
Whether intentional or not, Florida lawmakers in both rooms appear to be intent on addressing those questions and empowering the university’s board of directors.
The House bill, and similar Senate bills, both change the law to remove the governor’s authority in the selection process. The Senate bill – sponsored by Senator Alexis Karatayudo, R-Miami – does not include a provision prohibiting the governor and his staff from being involved in advocating for candidates.
Calatayud did not respond to a request for comment on her bill on Wednesday.
Miami Republicans are about to make changes to the bill ahead of Thursday’s hearing before the Senate Budget Subcommittee on Higher Education. Some of the changes are proposals to prohibit universities from voting with federal, state, or local candidates. Under her bill, the university has the ability to vote to “measure and inform the public about social, political and economic issues related to candidate preferences.”
The driving force behind the voting restrictions is unknown. However, some universities, such as FIU, FAU, and the University of North Florida, have voting work.
For example, UNF released a poll in February that first lady Casey DeSantis might be her early favorite to take over her husband, compared to Rep. Byron Donald. The FAU conducted a series of polls during the 2024 presidential election.
