As the University of North Florida awaits federal approval to change accreditors, the Florida Board of Governors has accused the Education Department of deliberately delaying the process.
UNF, like all 40 public institutions in the Sunshine State, is now required by Florida law to change accreditors every 10 years. It’s one of the first institutions to embark on the process—an effort that began in fall 2022, shortly after the state legislation was adopted.
But the change is seeming to move slowly as the university awaits department approval to leave the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges—which accredits all 40 of the state’s public institutions—and join the Higher Learning Commission. And the sluggish process has clearly frustrated the Florida Board of Governors, most of whom were appointed by Republican governors, including the law’s most important champion, Ron DeSantis.
A Lengthy Process
When the legislation requiring Florida’s public institutions to change accreditors (and also enacting post-tenure review for professors) was signed into law, Republican governor Ron DeSantis touted SB 7044 as a way to remove “the stranglehold that faculty unions and accrediting agencies have had on universities and colleges” in an April 2022 press release.
The law likely grew out of a clash between Florida officials and SACSCOC after the accreditor raised concerns about Florida’s attempt to prevent professors from testifying against the state in a legal case challenging restrictions on voting rights (before it reversed course). The accreditor had also questioned the state on other decisions in recent years, such as whether then–education commissioner Richard Corcoran’s candidacy for the Florida State University presidency in 2021 constituted a conflict of interest.
After the statute became law on July 1, 2022, the Education Department posted an online statement weeks later warning against “accreditation-shopping” and declaring that “postsecondary accreditation cannot become a race to the bottom.” The statement, which was accompanied by guidance on how to switch accreditors, referenced the then-new law in Florida.
“The goal is to prevent a race to the bottom in quality standards among accrediting agencies and ensure that institutions cannot switch to an accrediting agency with less rigorous standards simply to evade accountability from an accrediting agency that investigates practices or takes corrective action against an institution,” officials wrote. “For this purpose, the [Higher Education Act] requires the Department to review and approve an institution eligible to participate in the federal aid programs before it can switch its accrediting agency or add an additional accreditor.”
Some two years later, Florida Board of Governors members and staff argue that UNF has followed guidance, but the Education Department has slowed the process to a crawl.
UNF officially submitted an application to the department to change accreditors in January 2023. As the process stretched toward the two- year mark, the department asked for additional information: In September, it requested research and independent analysis conducted by UNF to determine whether the Higher Learning Commission is the best fit, along with minutes from board meetings and related documents “presented to decisionmakers” and communications with Florida Board of Governors members and staff about plans to change accreditors, according to public records obtained by Inside Higher Ed.
UNF responded late last month with more than 1,000 pages of documents.
Board members, who heard an accreditation update from UNF president Moez Limayem at its meeting last month, expressed outrage over the slow-moving effort, questioning whether the department was subjecting the university to unnecessary bureaucracy.
“What else do they need to know? This is ridiculous,” said board member Alan Levine.
“Agreed,” responded Limayem.
Levine also accused the Education Department of “intrusion into our governance” and argued that it “needs to get out of the way.”
Others questioned the department’s motivation in seeking additional details.
“It’s a question of whether this is a legitimate search for information or an attempt to delay the process. Only they can answer that question,” Florida State University System chancellor Ray Rodrigues, a former Republican lawmaker and DeSantis ally, said at the meeting.
The Education Department did not respond to a request for comment from Inside Higher Ed.
But Edward Conroy, a senior policy manager at the left-leaning think tank New America who has written about Florida’s efforts to change accreditors, said the timeline appears normal for such a move.
“These are very complex and time-consuming processes. Even under ideal, very streamlined circumstances, it’s usually pushing a two-year process on an accelerated timeline,” Conroy said.
The board’s complaint, he added, seems more focused on expediency than actual process issues.
The department “has a responsibility to make sure that when somebody is switching from one accrediting agency to another, they’re doing so for good reason, that it’s not going to change the oversight quality or the quality of the institution, and that it’s not to evade oversight by their current accreditor,” Conroy said. “Historically there have been instances of institutions trying to move to different accreditors because they’re getting in trouble with one to try and avoid sanctions.”
An Ongoing Accreditation Battle
The umbrage from the Florida Board of Governors comes on the heels of a failed lawsuit brought by the state that challenged the constitutionality of higher education accreditation altogether.
The state argued that Congress had “ceded unchecked power” to accreditors and asked the courts to block the Education Department from enforcing provisions of the Higher Education Act related to accreditation. A federal judge in the Southern District of Florida rejected the suit outright. At last month’s FLBOG meeting, officials noted that the state is considering an appeal.
But now that Donald Trump is the president-elect, the timeline for UNF’s switch may be accelerated if he lives up to campaign trail rhetoric in which he railed against and threatened to axe accreditors for allegedly failing students and taxpayers.
“When I return to the White House, I will fire the radical Left accreditors that have allowed our colleges to become dominated by Marxist Maniacs and lunatics,” Trump said in May 2023.
He promised to wield accreditation as a “secret weapon” and “accept applications for new accreditors who will impose real standards on colleges once again and once and for all,” with an emphasis on “defending the American tradition and Western civilization, protecting free speech” and eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion programs, among other priorities.
In the aftermath of the election, the Florida Board of Governors is now expecting an easier path for UNF.
“Under the Trump administration, we anticipate the accreditation process will be much quicker,” Cassandra Edwards, spokesperson for the State University System, told Inside Higher Ed.
While Trump’s campaign trail rhetoric tapped into the grievances many conservatives have with higher education, it provided little in the way of policy specifics. He also has yet to name an education secretary, a move that will offer some insights into the approach the department may take under the second Trump administration. Although Trump did, in his first term, make it easier for colleges to switch accreditors—reversing a rule that constrained agencies to geographic regions—it is not yet clear how his administration may rewrite the processes to expedite such changes.
“I can imagine a scenario where Trump appointees are willing to fast-track some of these things and be less careful in their oversight. It seems possible that things could be sped up given everything that the Trump campaign and allies have said about accreditors and accreditation,” Conroy said.
