The board overseeing Florida's public universities voted to create a new accreditor on Friday.
"If you look at the current accreditation process utilized by the seven national accreditors, they are all focused on inputs and processes rather than outputs and outcomes," Ray Rodrigues, chancellor of the State University System of Florida, told the Florida Board of Governors.
"This approach we believe suppresses innovation and it punishes those who do things or try to do things differently," he continued.
Among the important roles of accreditors are setting education standards, allowing institutions to get government funding and giving students access to financial aid.
Peter Lake, a Stetson University law professor and higher education expert, told WUSF's Your Florida team that this accreditation shift is a "foundation rocker."
A new accreditor would also have to be approved by the federal government.
Friday's "yes" vote was expected, though there were moments where the outcome appeared uncertain. Board members spent a large portion of the meeting talking through questions and concerns.
Some people mentioned confusion with the governing structure of the accreditor and worries about the state's role in the process.
Five other southern states are joining the alternative accreditor, but Florida is leading its creation and has set aside $4 million to start things off.
A business plan for the accreditor says the other states are expected to make similar contributions.
Eric Silagy, whose term on the board began in 2019, worried about liability.
"I think there's just a huge number of risks that we haven't necessarily addressed or identified, and maybe they have been and I've just missed it somewhere in the materials, but I'm really concerned about the structure not being in place from day one that will mitigate undue legal risk," he said.
Pushing members toward a "yes" vote, Vice Chair Alan Levine said, "If we even have optics that we're controlling this entity, it wouldn't be approvable by the [United States] Department of Education to begin with."
Members emphasized their belief the accreditor should be independent from the state's university system – and that universities and their systems' curriculum remain independent from the accreditor.
"I think it's important that we be very clear that establishing the curriculum is in the purview of that institution in the state university system, and that we are not allowing an accreditor to impose or prevent any content," said Kimberly Dunn, who's served on the board since last year as its faculty representative.
Their concerns were satisfied enough for passage.
"We're not looking to create an accreditor that removes left-wing ideology and replaces it with right-wing ideology," Rodrigues said. "The point of this is to have an accreditor that's not involved in ideology at all."
Gov. Ron DeSantis called for the creation because of what he calls accreditor bias toward progressive politics.
Yet critics of the move say state leaders are trying to induce a conservative shift in higher education.
"Right-wing politicians and legislators have learned that a robust, well-regarded accreditation system presents some kind of barriers to, frankly, to their attempts to inject partisan control into institutions of higher education," said Anita Levy of the American Association of University Professors.
The Florida Education Association and the United Faculty of Florida refer to the accreditor as "politically driven" and say it "directly threatens the independence, integrity, and academic credibility of the state's higher education system."
It's projected to take several years for the Commission for Public Higher Education (CPHE) to receive official status, according to the business plan.
If you have any questions about state government or the legislative process, you can ask the Your Florida team by clicking here.
This story was produced by WUSF as part of a statewide journalism initiative funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
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