New College of Florida denies tenure to five professors, defying students and faculty critics

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One by one, speakers at a Wednesday meeting of New College of Florida trustees approached a podium with a plea.

The way they delivered the message was different. Some shouted or used swear words to decry the state’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who installed several far-right voices on the New College board of trustees this year.

Others were polite, springing from the quality education they received at the public liberal arts institution. But their request was the same: to grant tenure to five faculty members.

In previous college years, a vote on tenure would not have been controversial. The professors had already been endorsed by their colleagues and other institutional leaders.

That was before a former Florida House lecturer and education commissioner, Richard Corcoran, associated with DeSantis, became acting president in February. Corcoran, citing the current uncertainty of the college’s needs, recently urged the board to dismiss the five professors awaiting tenure.

That’s exactly what the administrators did, turning down faculty applications, despite outcry from students, faculty, and alumni. The Board of Directors has final approval on occupancy offers.

The trustees’ action drew widespread criticism echoing nationwide complaints that in recent months have flooded the college on the Sarasota coast that academic freedom there is deteriorating.

Wednesday’s tenure denials have already had a tangible effect. In a dramatic end to the hours-long affair, one of the administrators, computer science professor Matthew Lepinski, announced under his breath that this would be his last meeting and that he would be quitting the college altogether. Lepinski is not named by DeSantis.

New College supporters fear similar departures and other ramifications due to the colleges’ new direction and DeSantis’ higher education policies in general.

The politicized subject of tenure

The New Colleges tenure saga recalls another higher education scandal in 2021. It involved the board of trustees of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the state’s flagship institution, which refused to vote for the tenure of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones. .

Hannah-Jones had also been supported by her faculty peers, and the snub of advice represented an extreme departure from precedent. Media reported at the time that conservative critics, including megadonor Walter Hussman, opposed Hannah-Jones’ work spearheading the 1619 Project, a narrative that partly explains how slavery defined American culture. .

Although the Chapel Hill board of trustees eventually offered the tenure to Hannah-Jones, she opted to take a permanent position at Howard University, a historically black institution in Washington, DC.

Since then, the term has become a political target for Republican lawmakers. States like Florida, Texas and North Carolina have proposed tenure bans in public institutions, saying the traditionally lifetime appointment allows professors to perform poorly without consequences.

Proponents of tenure like the American Association of University Professors, or AAUP, argue that professors need its protections to pursue potentially unpopular studies free from political or corporate influence.

States that have weakened land tenure have seen the repercussions. After Wisconsin gutted land protections through state legislation, its flagship institution, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, was forced to spend millions of at least $16 million over the course of the 2015-16 academic year to retain the best professors who submitted job offers.

What’s going on at New College?

DeSantis’ moves to remodel New College have brought forth a coalition of students, faculty, and alumni who have branded them a conservative takeover of the institution.

The new board also fired the former president and eliminated diversity programs, a feature of a campus once considered very LGBTQ-friendly. DeSantis sought to make New College the Hillsdale of the South, referencing a prominent conservative institution in Michigan that avoids federal funding.

Meanwhile, New College students, parents and others campaigned to save New College and made Wednesday’s tenure vote part of their fight.

For about an hour, speakers approached the council, each having a minute to weigh in on tenure requests and the council’s methods in general. The meeting was mostly subdued, although on a few occasions administrators threatened to fire audience members who interrupted the proceedings.

One of the new trustees, Mark Bauerlein, said the tenure offers raised concerns because the five professors Rebecca Black, Lin Jiang, Nassima Neggaz, Gerardo Toro-Farmer and Hugo Viera-Vargas were seeking approval a year before the typical period of six years. plan when they would come for it.

Other administrators, however, pointed out that the professors met tenure requirements, so timing should matter little.

In the end, the trustees rejected the tenure applications in five separate votes, every 6 to 4, one vote for each faculty member under consideration. Lepinski was among the trustees who voted in favor of granting tenure.

None of the professors responded to a request for comment on Wednesday.

After the votes, the public cried out in shame at you and the meeting was adjourned.

Outdoor groups weigh

The national branch of the AAUP did not immediately issue a statement after Wednesday’s votes.

However, the president of faculty organizations, Irene Mulvey, on Tuesday lambasted in a statement the interference of administrators in academic affairs.

Their efforts are a clear violation of widely accepted norms of collegial shared governance, Mulvey said. American higher education is organized around the principle that decisions about teaching and research should be made by scholars with scientific expertise in the appropriate field.

Free speech advocates have also lambasted New College’s board of trustees. Jeremy Young, senior director of free speech and education at PEN America, said in a statement that out-of-state political operatives hijacked the board. On Twitter, he called his actions despicable.

Young, in a statement last week, criticized Corcoran in particular, saying the interim presidents were pressuring the board to turn down tenure offers and undermining academic freedom.

With each new censorship action, the board demonstrates that its vision for New College as the Hillsdale of the South does not include intellectual freedom or quality college education, Young said Wednesday.

Faculty members were aiming for tenure a year earlier, so they have the opportunity to apply for it again. However, trustees who voted in favor of their tenure appeal raised concerns that the college might change the tenure requirements.

A spokesperson for New College did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

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