Three professors this week filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a 2023 law revising tenure in Florida’s university system, arguing the legislature exceeded its authority in approving changes.

The suit, filed Tuesday in Leon County Circuit Court by professors from New College of Florida, the University of Florida and the University of South Florida, alleges that the Legislature unconstitutionally infringed on the authority of the state university system’s board of trustees by enacting the law.

The law, in part, effectively required tenured faculty to “undergo a comprehensive post-tenure review” every five years that includes looking at issues such as productivity, performance, and research and teaching duties. The law also gave university presidents the final say on hiring decisions, preventing disputes from going to arbitration.

The lawsuit claims 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 president.” It said it could affect professors’ career prospects and ability to get government grants and “impedes 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“Because traditional tenure has been abolished in Florida, plaintiffs can no longer represent to the public and their peers that they are fully tenured professors,” the 20-page lawsuit states.

The tenure changes were part of a broad higher education bill (SB 266) that came amid a series of controversial efforts by Republican lawmakers and Gov. Ron DeSantis to overhaul 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 sciences. Defendants are Speaker Paul Renner, R-Palm Coast; Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, and the university system’s board of trustees.

The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Angela Dempsey.
The allegations in the lawsuit stem from a 2002 constitutional amendment that created the board to oversee the university system. Attorneys for the professors wrote that they “challenge the Legislature’s authority to prescribe standards of tenure and administrative review, which the plaintiffs argue are within the Board’s exclusive jurisdiction” under the constitutional amendment.

Part of the 2023 law said the board “shall” adopt a regulation requiring tenured professors to undergo post-tenure reviews every five years. It revised a 2022 law that said the board “may” adopt an ordinance requiring such reviews.

After the 2022 law passed, the board approved such an ordinance in March 2023. The universities previously had post-hire reviews, but system chancellor Ray Rodrigues said the new process would make the reviews uniform.

“This is a policy that has been well developed and will serve the institution, will serve the system, and I think ultimately will serve our faculty and our students well,” Rodrigues said at the time.

The lawsuit also focuses on a section of the 2023 law that states “personnel actions or decisions concerning faculty, including in the areas of evaluations, promotion, tenure, discipline, or termination, may not be appealed beyond the level of a university chancellor or (the president’s) designee.” Previously, union contracts contained the option of arbitration in employment disputes.

Leon County Circuit Judge J. Lee Marsh last month declined to dismiss a separate legal challenge to that part of the law. United Faculty of Florida, its New College chapter and a professor, Hugo Viera-Vargas, filed the lawsuit, which claims that eliminating the option to arbitrate violates constitutional collective bargaining rights and impairs existing union contracts.