Amid tensions with faculty over COVID and academic freedom, UF president to step down
University of Florida President Kent Fuchs announced early Wednesday he will step down by the end of 2022, his eighth year at the helm of the state’s flagship university, amid contentious relations between him and the faculty over academic freedom and his handling of COVID, although UF says his decision to leave the presidency preceded these issues.
On the first day of classes of the spring semester, Fuchs, 67, said in a recorded video he posted on social media that he will take a sabbatical and then return to UF as an electrical engineering professor. In a release, UF said Fuchs had told UF Board of Trustees Chair Mori Hosseini in August that he would like to transition from president to professor and they agreed to make the announcement in January.
Fuchs’ decision to step down follows a tumultuous few months at UF between Fuchs and the faculty.
Faculty sue UF
The three political science professors whom UF barred in October from testifying as paid witnesses in the voting rights suit sued Fuchs, Provost Joe Glover and UF’s board of trustees in November, alleging in the federal court lawsuit that their First Amendment rights were violated.
The voting rights lawsuit stemmed from SB 90, which Gov. DeSantis signed into law in May. The law tightens Florida’s voting rules, including limiting drop boxes and requiring voters to annually renew their request for vote-by-mail ballots and to provide more identification to get one. The League of Women Voters of Florida, among other groups, sued the state over the law, and asked the professors to testify in the case.
UF told the professors, in denying their request to testify, that “outside activities that may pose a conflict to the executive branch of the State of Florida create a conflict for the University of Florida.”
An outcry over the university impinging on academic freedom led UF to reverse its decision about the professors’ testimony, but the professors’ suit contends UF’s policies could lead to the same thing happening again. UF’s accrediting body, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools’ Commission on Colleges, launched an investigation to determine whether the university violated “undue political influence” when it barred the professors from testifying.
Three other UF professors joined the suit, saying they, too, were barred from testifying in lawsuits against the state — one related to a felon voting rights case and another related to COVID mask mandates. On Monday, Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker denied a motion by UF to dismiss the litigation. Oral arguments are scheduled for Friday.
Clash over COVID policies at UF
Faculty and UF administrators most recently clashed over the decision by UF to hold in-person classes at the start of the spring semester, which began Wednesday, with no mask or vaccination requirements despite the record number of new COVID cases in Florida and the country.
The Herald reported Tuesday that in the past seven days, as the highly contagious omicron variant spreads, the state has added 22 deaths and 56,421 cases per day, on average. That rolling seven-day case average is the highest it has been since the start of the pandemic in March 2020.
Other universities, including the private University of Miami and Harvard University, moved to start the semester with online classes. UF’s faculty union asked Fuchs in late December to start the first three weeks of classes remotely.
UF, backed by the Florida Board of Governors, the body that oversees the state’s 12 public universities, refused and instead encouraged everyone to get tested before they arrived back to campus.
In November, UF’s faculty senate passed a resolution, in a 70-31 vote, expressing ‘no confidence’ in Fuchs’ handling of the coronavirus pandemic, as reported by the Independent Florida Alligator, the student newspaper.
An Oklahoma native, Fuchs became UF’s 12th president in January 2015. Before that, he served as provost and dean of engineering at Cornell University. He was on the faculty in electrical and computer engineering at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and then served as School Head at Purdue University, according to a UF statement.
UF climbs in national ranking
Fuchs said Wednesday he had fulfilled his promises of making UF a top 10 public university and completing a $3 billion fundraising campaign.
Last September, U.S. News & World Report ranked UF as No. 5 among public universities in the country. UF has secured $3.8 billion in fundraising for its Go Greater philanthropic campaign and expects to hit $4.2 billion by the time the campaign wraps up next October — $1.2 billion more than its original goal.
The UF Board of Trustees will launch a national search soon to appoint the next president, who will need confirmation by the Florida Board of Governors.
Fuchs has a bachelor’s in engineering from Duke University, holds a doctorate in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Illinois, and a master’s of divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He said he expects his successor to take over by next spring.
“I look forward to the time when I can hand the baton to the next president and say, as the Apostle Paul said to Timothy, ‘I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith.’”
This story was originally published January 5, 2022 at 11:20 AM.
