Oral arguments continued this week in University of Florida professors’ federal lawsuit over academic freedom issues in the wake of university President Kent Fuchs announcing he would step down from his post in 2023.
Neither the attorneys representing the six professors in a lawsuit filed in the Northern District of Florida nor university officials have indicated that Fuchs’ decision to transition from president to a professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering by early next year would have any bearing on the litigation.
The professors’ lawsuit alleges the university’s conflict-of-interest policy gives university officials power to silence professors’ views when they want to testify as expert witnesses on behalf of plaintiffs whose positions go against those of state laws or policies.
“They want to silence the viewpoints that some professors would express because they fear that the opinions will anger the state’s political leaders,” one of the attorneys who represents the professors, David A. O’Neil, said in remarks that were emailed to the Florida Record. “What is perhaps most alarming is that the university believes it is perfectly entitled to suppress faculty speech in this way.”
The professors – Sharon Wright Austin, Michael McDonald, Daniel Smith, Jeffrey Goldhagen, Teresa Reid and Kenneth Nunn – were initially denied permission to testify as expert witnesses in cases involving voting rights and public health policies in Florida, raising First Amendment concerns.
The professors’ allegations proved thorny for Fuchs because the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) is now investigating whether the conflict-of-interest policy amounts to noncompliance with the SACSCOC’s Principles of Accreditation. The association is sending a panel to the university in June to review the school’s compliance.
Fuchs, 67, said he has decided to step down once a successor is chosen because commitments he made when he assumed the post in 2014 have been fulfilled. These included seeing the university reach the U.S. News top-10 ranking for U.S. universities, the completion of a $3 billion fundraising effort and no increases in students’ tuition.
The professors’ lawsuit says leaving the University of Florida’s conflict-of-interest policy in place would result in intrusions of free expression at other universities.