Professors from across the country have long been lured to Florida’s public colleges and universities, with the educators attracted to the research opportunities, student bodies, and the warm weather.
But for a swath of liberal-leaning professors, many of them holding highly coveted tenured positions, they’ve felt increasingly out of place in the Sunshine State. And some of them are pointing to the conservative administration of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis as the reason for their departures, according to The New York Times.
DeSantis, who was elected to the governorship in 2018 and was easily reelected last fall, has over the course of his tenure worked to put a conservative imprint on a state where moderation was once a driving force in state politics. In recent years, DeSantis has railed against the current process by which tenure is awarded, and with a largely compliant GOP-controlled legislature, he’s imposed conservative education reforms across the state.
I’ve got my share of “cases of the corporate Mondays”, and it is chock full of its own brand of ghoulery, but I’m so glad I jumped ship from academia. So many of my colleagues are stuck in some awful situations.
Granted, some that tried to jump weren’t lucky enough to cross the gap, and are stuck in THAT awful situation.
With the ratio of adjunct to tenured faculty, the state of obtaining tenure, and the increasingly toothless nature of tenure, not to mention these goons doing everything they can to demonize education at all levels that isn’t a 5 page child’s board story book of Noah’s Ark…