A recent study has claimed that the State University System of Florida’s (SUS) post-tenure review policy is causing a “brain drain” by increasing faculty departures, particularly among young and productive scholars. The study, titled “Fight or Flight: The Impact of Post-Tenure Evaluations on Faculty Productivity and Selection,” was authored by Simon Quach and Zhengyi Yu from the University of Southern California. It uses data from ORCID and Dimensions databases to track employment, publication records, and demographic information for higher education professionals.
According to the study, since the implementation of the SUS’s unified post-tenure review policy in 2022, the annual exit rate for professors increased from 4% to 5%. The authors also reported a decrease in prior publications among new hires and no change in publication rates among current faculty. They argue these trends are linked to the new policy.
However, Dr. Jason Jewell, Chief Academic Officer at SUS, raised concerns about the validity of these findings. He noted that “the study suffers from severe limitations and does not provide sufficient evidence for its conclusions. Its usefulness for informing policy discussion is thus negligible.” Jewell pointed out that the paper is still a working draft pending peer review and lacks publicly available raw data.
Jewell highlighted several issues with the methodology:
– The focus on research productivity overlooks other aspects evaluated during post-tenure reviews such as teaching, service, compliance with regulations, and overall conduct.
– ORCID’s database is not universally used across academia; it relies on users to update their profiles manually.
– The merged dataset only achieved an 83% match rate between sources.
– There was no differentiation between journal quality or academic presses in measuring productivity.
– Citation counts may be unreliable due to a short observation window.
– Only one year of policy implementation was analyzed along with just 20% of tenured faculty.
He stated that “neither the legislature nor the Board of Governors has ever identified this definition of productivity as the sole or even the primary benchmark for the success of post-tenure review.” Jewell also questioned whether other factors unrelated to post-tenure review might explain increased departures.
Economic conditions in Florida have changed significantly since 2020. Rising real estate prices have made it harder for younger scholars to settle in Central and South Florida due to inflation and economic growth.
Political changes have also affected SUS operations. In 2023, S.B. 266 ended federally and state-funded DEI spending within SUS institutions. This impacted some faculty hiring processes supported by federal grants or internal policies at universities. Although Quach and Yu argue DEI restrictions did not drive departures—citing higher exit rates among those with “white-sounding names”—Jewell suggested this conclusion may be flawed because political beliefs rather than race could influence decisions to leave.
S.B. 266 further reformed general education requirements by removing disciplines considered overly ideological; sociology was eliminated from core curricula as an example. Jewell observed that this could prompt progressive researchers—most concentrated in humanities and social sciences—to leave SUS institutions.
He referenced Inside Higher Ed’s July 2023 report stating that one-third of New College faculty resigned after changes in leadership appointed by Governor DeSantis: “According to ‘Fight or Flight,’ those departures should be attributed to faculty opposition to post-tenure review. Which is the more likely explanation?”